The San Antonio Spurs, quite simply, have been poor for the past few weeks. In fact, at the time of writing, they have not won for nearly four weeks now, suffering their 12th straight defeat on Sunday night in a 132-120 loss to the reigning champion Denver Nuggets. The Spurs' overall putrid play has put a damper on what has been a promising rookie season thus far for Victor Wembanyama, who's quickly losing his luster due to the stellar play of Chet Holmgren.

Nevertheless, Wembanyama is still showing signs that he will be the Spurs' franchise cornerstone when they make their return to contention in the coming years. In fact, head coach Gregg Popovich is proud of the growth the 19-year old Frenchman has shown to this point, especially when it comes to being more able to make the winning play by remaining more focused on the task at hand.

“He's playing aggressively, affecting the game in a lot of different ways. He's blocking shots, he's scoring, he's a willing assist man, very unselfish passer. But he goes to the next play. He doesn't worry about making a mistake,” Popovich said, per Tom Orsborn of San Antonio Express-News.

To the eye test, it's clear that Victor Wembanyama's feel for the game is improving, even if it hasn't necessarily resulted in wins for the Spurs. His defense, in particular, remains as disruptive as ever. Going up against Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets is not an easy task at all, but Wembanyama finished that game with six steals and four blocks, using every inch of his freakish wingspan to anchor an admittedly work-in-progress San Antonio defense.

At this point, it's clear as well that Wembanyama is already the Spurs' best player, even if he still has a ton of room to grow in the efficiency department. For a 7'4 player, Wembanyama's 43.0 percent shooting from the field simply won't cut it, although he should have easier shots once the Spurs figure out how to get him the ball in closer spots to the hoop.

The Spurs may be enduring plenty of growing pains on the road to success, but Gregg Popovich, of all people, should know what it takes to flourish in the NBA. Thus, if Pop's evaluations of Wembanyama remain glowingly positive, then perhaps they deserve more patience despite their 3-14 start to the 2023-24 season.