点击查看原文：Giannis? Keep No. 2 pick? San Antonio’s lottery win provides options
Giannis? Keep No. 2 pick? San Antonio’s lottery win provides options
Columnist Mike Finger and Spurs beat reporters Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn discuss the Spurs winning the No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft lottery, and if they should keep the pick and take Dylan Harper or if they should trade it for Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Suggested reading:
No Flagg, but Spurs have ‘pick of litter’ after another lucky NBA Draft lottery
Finger: One last time, Gregg Popovich lives up to the moment
Before helping current players, Johnson to focus on Spurs’ future
Johnson gains new multi-year contract from Spurs
\
Here is the transcript of the podcast:
From a highly secure network of top secret locations across North America, this is the Spurs Insider, lottery winners edition. I’m your host, Mike Finger, joined as always by our panel of Express News Spurs beat reporters, Jeff McDonald and Tom Orsborn, along with sports editor Nick Talbot.
Tom is joining us for the third consecutive year on the morning after what’s become a tradition for Tom Orsborn, heading into the lottery room, the drawing room, turning over all of his electronic devices, cutting himself off from the outside world, and watching the local cage change the course of their franchise. Two years ago it happened when I was right outside that room, and the Spurs landed Victor Wembanyama. Last year it happened, the Spurs got their lottery ball combination drawn again and landed in the top four to draft the eventual Rookie of the Year, Stefan Castle. This year, their lottery ball combination comes up again. They don’t get the big prize, but they get a pretty big prize, Tom. I think the prediction we’re going to make to start out this podcast is you’re not going to be doing this next year. Does that sound like a plan for you?
Yeah, Brian and I talked about that. He said, you know, we’re we’re a winning combination, he said. So, you know, you have to clear your calendar if we ever have to do this again. And I said, well, hopefully you never have to again. He said, well, there’s always a trade. You know, there’s always always that possibility. So, but um, no, it was interesting last night that he, you know, in 2023, as the as the balls were pulled up and the numbers were read, he was really struggling to find a combination to see if the Spurs had won. And he couldn’t find it. Of course, there are 140 combinations that year. And the Rockets rep leaned over to him and whispered, I think it’s you. I think you got it. But this year, there were 60 combinations, and he was right on the money as soon as that fourth ball came, came up and the number was read, he knew it, started nodding his head and, you know, tapped the table with his hand. That was his form of celebration, you know, two years ago it was a little understated fist bump. So yeah, it was he was talking about that afterward, how he knew this time around that they had gotten it. But yeah, he was elated.
I guess there’s a possibility they do own some Atlanta pick. So I guess I was just thinking you could go back with him, the Spurs handling the Atlanta picks. But that leads us to the natural next topic of conversation here. After we get past just the the shell shock, laughable, hilarious turn of events that Nico Harrison and the and the Dallas Mavericks won this lottery, which just shows that good planning gets rewarded, fellas. Competence always pays off. It’s good karma.
I’m not sure that the Spurs are going to make this pick. And uh I’ll I’ll start the conversation with just the the what we know. Uh, what we know is there’s a fella from Rutgers, the college basketball hot bed of Rutgers called Dylan Harper, who seems to be the consensus number two player in this draft behind Cooper Flag. I think there’s a lot of agreement on that. There are some outlier takes out there, which, you know, there’s always somebody trying to be a contrarian. But it seems to be pretty well decided that Dylan Harper is the guy who most scouts, talent evaluators, executives, think is the second best player in this draft. He’s a guy who could fit into what the Spurs are building in San Antonio. The problem is, and it’s not a problem at all. I shouldn’t have used that word. The issue is, there might be a better use of this huge asset that the Spurs just won last night, than to add a player who has some overlap with the player they acquired at the trade deadline last year, Daron Fox, and the player that they landed in last year’s draft, Stefan Castle. So, this leads to some natural questions about what do you do with this pick? It is now the third most attractive, maybe the second most attractive trade chip that the Spurs have in their stockpile right now. You could do a lot of things with it. Jeff, I’m going to bring you in on this. Does this change your tune on the discussion we had two weeks ago about Janis? Does it lead you to think that maybe you trade down and look for a shooter? Does it lead to more modest trades or do you just say, hey, if everyone really loves Dylan Harper this much, the Spurs should take him and find room for him?
It’s a lot of questions. A lot a lot of a lot of questions there. I don’t know where to start. I think there would be zero questions if the Spurs had just got the number one pick. Why didn’t they do that? They got so close. I think I think it’s I think it’s just proof that God hates the Spurs. Or it’s rigged.
Yeah. Yeah. is got to be rigged. The lottery is so rigged that like the top the best picks of the last 40 years have gone to those big market teams like San Antonio and Orlando and uh, you know, Cleveland. Like it’s really they don’t do a good, they suck at rigging if they rig the lottery. Anyway, back to your questions about the number two pick. Um, what was the first one you I’m like being interviewed and you ask three, I just have a three-part question. Now I can’t remember any of the parts.
We’re going to start with the one that’s going to get all the people riled up and just say does it do is is do you have to use this pick now to get Janis?
Do you have to? Oh, absolutely have to. There’s no have to. No. See, that’s why I post a question that because you do not have to.
I I think I I think I think. Yeah, I think, I mean, someone asked me, does this make it, does this increase the odds of of trading for Janis? And I guess the answer to that is yes, because the number two pick is more attractive than the number eight pick, which is where the Spurs were at. Like, like, so I guess that’s a pedantic way of answering it, but I I I guess I can’t speak to what the Spurs will do, but I can speak to what I would do, and I’m still, I’m not really pro trade for Janis.
I think. Explain. I think, I mean, the main the main issue to me is I think you’re is that team in Oklahoma City. And I realized, okay, see is uh in a tied series with the Nuggets right now. So this might all. But I think that team is going to be a monster for the next several years. And I think if you use a you use a lot of your capital to bring in Janis, you make the Spurs a lot better, they’re clearly a Western Conference contender, but I have, I fear that you’re spending a lot of capital to play for number two in the West. And you’re still going to have to wait out that Oklahoma City Dynasty in the making. And when that’s over, Janis is past his prime. He’s 35 or something. So that’s one reason I would I would rather I would rather build for a window a little after that. And and build through the draft and um build a team that comes up together. And everything we know about the Spurs is that’s kind of how they they they’ve tend to operate and how they wanted to put this together.
So that would be. Now, the the flip side of that whole OKC argument is the most compelling argument I can think of to make a play for Janis is to keep him from going to Oklahoma City and length that window. Or Houston. Those and making those two teams teams that you have to go through for the next half decade or more. And I don’t know if like preventing someone else from doing something is a good enough reason to do something yourself. But that’s the most compelling reason to me is to keep him out of those guys’ hands.
I really hate everything that you just said, like everything. Because I agree with all of it.
Yes. And and I wanted to the first time for everyone on this freaking podcast.
I wanted to debate you. I wanted to debate somebody. But it’s just it I I I think that you you had it exactly right and that makes for really boring podcast. Um we we needed to like throw down intellectually. Um and it’s just not going to happen.
I didn’t want to have to. Hey, hey, hey, I think that like just we talked about it two weeks ago. The thought of of Janis in a Spurs uniform next to Victor Wembanyama is so crazy, funny and exciting that I wouldn’t bash the Spurs for doing it and I would totally understand if they did do it. It would be a lot of upside for them doing it. It would work. I just don’t know that if it works good enough, crazy as that sounds.
Do you want someone to disagree with? Yes, go for it. I’ll argue with you.
Okay. I’ll argue with you. Okay. So you just have this 7’4 guy who’s diagnosed with DVT. How long is your window? Do you know you’re going to get 10 years, 12 years of great Victor Wembanyama? Maybe not, man. He gets hurt. There’s no guarantees in the NBA. And sometimes, instead of a dynasty, you have to plan for, like, the Bucks thought they were going to get more than one. They didn’t. So so sometimes you just need to know go for what you can.
Thank you for doing this. And I think I think I think Yannis can give you a window would say, okay, we’re, this is our championship window. Victor and Yannis can at least get you one championship, maybe two, and they shoot you into the window right now instead of saying two or three years from now. Why are you building a championship contender for five years from now when you can be a championship contender right now?
Thank you so much, Nick, for giving me some points to shoot down because that’s exactly what I needed.
You’re you’re you’re for you’re voicing the fan and I I know that’s what you sometimes you have to play that devil’s advocate, but Yannis is the champion, can give you the championship window right now.
Exactly. I can now that’s perfect. That is that is perfect. Now I can take, I can pick this apart piece by piece. Because first of all, as as we discussed a couple weeks ago, okay, all of what Nick said makes makes sense at first. But uh, but okay, uh, if if Victor if if his career is not going to be what we think it is, then like the that thing things aren’t good. Like, like you you can’t plan for that. You can’t plan for um, the backup plan when you have Victor Wembanyama. I don’t think that’s the smart way to do things. You said it’s You you want to build with Victor Wembanyama. You don’t want to, you don’t want to say, oh, if he’s not around then we need a in 10 years, then we need to make the most of it now. I don’t think that’s that’s the Spurs way of building. They don’t look short-term, they look long-term. That’s that part of it. The second part of it is, when you talk about needing to make your championship window now, that just does not ha Go back through the last decade and a half of NBA history, teams that immediately that try for the immediate championship contention window, do not succeed. No, no, uh, finals MVP, no best player in the finals, best players on his final team, has ever been that in the first six, seven years of his career over the past two decades. Like it always takes time to to to build to that. We talked about this a couple weeks ago. Um, the with with the Rockets, with the Thunder. The Thunder were the best team in the West last year, just ran into the wall in the playoffs. Like so you put Janis and Victor together, like sure they immediately become a really good team, maybe one of the top teams in the West, but that team needs to lose at least once, maybe twice in the in the playoffs before it gets over the hump. That’s just the way playoff success happens these days. You you don’t immediately become a championship team.
So Janis is 30 years old. And uh, if you figure you need like it it it’s unrealistic to me, as good as that team could be, to think that that team could win the championship in the next two years. Victor needs a couple of years of figuring out the playoffs. Stefan Castle does. None of these other guys, like Kelvin Johnson hasn’t played in the playoffs. Uh, if if Jeremy Sohan and Devin Vassell and those guys are still around, they haven’t played in the playoffs. You’re going to need two at least two years of runway minimum before you think about winning the championship. So at that point, Janis, to Jeff’s point, Janis is 33 and he’s past his prime. And everyone’s getting really, really expensive. And so my and I’m not trying to be so like strident against Janis. I’m just making the arguments so people understand why it’s not a slam dunk.
If you if you believe in Dylan Harper or you believe in somebody younger, like I if that guy’s going to be that good, like why not take the 20-year-old and and have give yourself to to Nick’s point about uh if if Victor’s career isn’t going to be as long as it is. Well, then now you have a 20-year-old future All-star, you hope, with Stefan Castle and with Daron Fox. When they traded for Daron Fox at the deadline, some people said the one drawback to that was he was too old and he was 27. So, um, I I think that Nick brings up valid points. I just think that knowing the Spurs, they would have to be really, really, really convinced to go against how they’ve always built teams. They had to be convinced of something and I just don’t see it yet as a slam dunk that this automatically means they’re going to go get Janis. Uh, Tom, you could weigh in on any of this.
Uh, Tom’s on mute. Um, offer one other point.
Go go but but go ahead and and counter Nick. Sorry sorry about sorry.
Sorry about that. You can build and you can build and you can hope all you want. But the chances of you getting like Dylan Harper turning out to be as good as Janis are very low. So you’re probably never going to get a player as good as to go next to.
Will the okay, good, good response.
I mean I mean that’s just the way it is. Cause What are the what if the chance is?
Janis is, I mean there’s no guarantee Victor is going to be as good as Janis. I mean, that’s probably not true, but you know, Janis is one of the best players and he has a championship pedigree. He’s already been there. He’s already won it. You’re not someone who’s Which you’re talking about the past.
Nick, Nick, Nick, let me ask you this. I I agree. The chances that Dylan Harper ever will be as good as as Janis was in his career are extremely low. What are the chances that uh there will be more value for Dylan Harper in 2028, three years from now, than Janis in 2028. Janis making $60 million a year at age 33. Who who will be the more valued asset in 2028? Dylan Harper at the end of his rookie contract at age 22, or Janis at 33 past his prime making $60 million a year? Financially.
No, no. I mean basketball. I I mean I mean I mean which which asset would you rather have on your team trying to win a championship? Ju- just basketball wise, how to build a team wise, how how to add players around them, which which who’s more valuable in 2028, which I think is the first year the Spurs can seriously consider winning a championship.
I don’t think that’s a slam dunk.
On. On the court, you think that okay. But again, you’re Not not counting the salary, not counting the salary cap which is what you said, than Janis. That’s a he’s a guarantee. Harper is not a guarantee. He could be a flop.
Janis is a guaranteed age 33. I I mean look at him. I mean he’s a freak. I he’s he’s not, he’s not Zion Williamson. He’s not over there eating cheeseburgers or whatever having troubles with his weight. That guy is just a chiseled guy. I mean he hasn’t had a huge injury history. He’s not Anthony Davis.
Okay. I I I I think I think I take I take Yannis. On the court I take Yannis at 33. Do I take him at 35, 36? That’s that also factors into it. Maybe maybe not. But at 33, I I think he’s still going to be Yannis. See it’s it’s but but it brings up it’s I’m glad we’re.
35 where these these great players kind of saw their unless you’re LeBron James, start seeing decline, you know. And that’s what the Spurs are building towards is they they want the their window is 2027, 2028, that area through like the early 2030s. And uh and Janis doesn’t fit into that. And yes, I realized he’s such a generationally great player that maybe you make an exception anyway and you think that you have him for a few years and then move on to whatever’s next. But this is the argument against it. And it’s not a matter of Dylan Harper versus Yannis like who’s going to be the better player, who’s more likely to go to the Hall of Fame. Obviously, that’s one-sided. It’s a matter of how how they fit into what the Spurs are building. And I think it’s a a decent conversation to have and Tom, you can jump in whenever you want. If if Harper fulfills his promise of being favorably compared to Cade Cunningham, I mean, that’s that’s a solid, solid number two out to pair with Victor. Um then you throw in Fox and Castle. I mean, that’s a homegrown nucleus that could have a window as big as the one I’m looking out here in Chicago from my hotel room. It’s a rather. I think is that window, Tom? It’s a rather large window, Mike.
Did you measure it? It’s it’s it’s rather large. What are you looking out upon in Chicago, Tom?
Uh, the river, the river. Oh. That’s good.
Very nice, very nice view. Little foggy this morning, but nonetheless, it’s a big window. So that’s that’s what the Spurs want. They you know, they’re not looking at one championship, they’re they’re looking at contending for the, you know, having sustainability for for the future for a long time. And Cunningham, like Mike said, at age 19, if, I mean, um, Harper at age 19, if he compares to Cunningham, that’s that’s a hell of a number two. I know.
Can you see Can you see Trump Tower from your uh window? Um, no, I cannot.
Yeah. Okay.
I was wondering. That makes that makes the window even. Anyway, um, the uh So so it’s not it’s not the greatest window we ever saw. Right. Right.
Um. Right. But it’s That leads Tom, that’s that leads to another option here, which it’s not just, it’s not just Dylan Harper or Janis. There are middle grounds. There are there are alternatives. The when I think Brian Wright mentioned to Tom Orsborn, uh, coming out of the uh of the drawing room yesterday that uh the Spurs have the pick of the litter.
That’s right. That was Mitch. Mitch. Oh Mitch Mitch Mitch said they have the pick of the litter. Yeah, that struck me, yeah. The the the litter is not just this draft class. It’s it’s all kinds of things. It’s it’s uh trade targets and it’s not just the second best player in the draft. Like if the Spurs decide that they want that somebody else really, really wants Dylan Harper who needs a lead guard, the Spurs kind of have two now. You know, you could trade down a couple spots if if they had somebody targeted at that four or five or six or somewhere along there and then collect more stuff to go with it. I think that the Spurs are going to have a lot of options coming their way. I think there’re going to be a lot of offers made to the Spurs from teams who want to move up and are really intrigued by Dylan Harper. Um, I don’t think that someone other than Dylan Harper is going to be taken second. Um, I know I’m I I know uh you know, draft guru. But I like Ace Bailey uh is just the guy who well, if if the idea of Ace Bailey fits the Spurs better than Dylan Harper does. He’s a tall, strong guy who can make a shot, um, really, really, really good looking athlete. Um, he just doesn’t didn’t do much this year. Um, friend friend of the podcast John Hollinger who I think saw Rutgers in person. I think John saw Rutgers in person a bunch this year, um, had his list of uh draft prospects come out yesterday, and he had him 12th, Ace Bailey. And that’s that’s he’s low on that and that that might be extreme. But but uh the point is like Ace Bailey is a is a project. He’s not close to uh to be the difference maker that Dylan Harper is yet. He’s at his best, I think he fits the Spurs better than anybody other than Cooper Flag in the draft. It’s just it it’s it’s the kind of gamble that I’m not sure the Spurs make with that pick. And so I I I think that somebody is going to take Dylan Harper second and it’s a matter whether the Spurs are that team or not. And another team could be the Milwaukee Bucks if the Spurs trade for Janis, or it could be like say does does Utah want to trade up a couple spots and get him? And uh does that bring like uh Lauri Markkenan back into the to the uh to the discussion. Hum. He’s he’s a very, very, very poor man’s Yannis. But I’m I’m just saying and I and I don’t think the Laurie Martin thing is going to happen at all. I just threw that out as an example of of take a lower level type of guy. Um, and uh and maximize that that asset that the Spurs just got. You you want to know what I would do if I was Brian Wright?
Yeah. This is this is going to break the podcast uh podcast averse. Um I wouldn’t overthink it and I would take Dylan Harper. Yeah? And I I’ve heard the arguments. Well, they already have this guy and that guy. But it it like it’s this does anybody watch the NBA in 2025? Like it’s not really about positions. Like I yes, I get. Yeah, but we need shooting. Yeah, but we need uh a big guy. Well, go get those guys other ways. You have another pick in the first round, there’s free agency. When you have the second pick, take the best player there. And if you’re not going to do that, then then yeah, trade trade down. Get something for for uh let somebody else take the next Cade Cunningham and you go trade get something else and take pick fifth or whatever. But take take the best player. You can play all those guys. If they’re as good as if they’re as good as you think they are, you can play all those guys. Yep. And uh the the other, that’s the other counter to the to the Janis argument is that um, what’s the last if if you trade for Janis, you’re building a super team. Um, you’re you’re building around basically three, four guys who are going to be making uh of of of a a ton of money in a few years and you’re going to have to find that minimum around them in a few years. It’s just going to be these these three huge contracts and three, three stars and what’s the when’s the last time that has worked for a championship in the NBA? It has been a while. Um, it’s that the there’s cautionary tales left and right, name Kevin Durant’s last two teams. You know, it’s it’s just hard to make that work anymore. And just the way the NBA is going, it’s the teams with with a bunch of depth, with a bunch of young players who’ve grown together, that’s the formula for building a contender these days. And here’s the other thing. If you take Dylan Harper, now you have uh uh you’ve added to your stable of guys that other teams are going to want over the years and you can always adjust off of that. If you throw everything into Janis, you’re kind of stuck with that. And and being stuck is that’s that’s the wrong word for adding a guy who’s a perennial MVP candidate and is a huge difference maker and is won a title and all that type of stuff. But you are you are limited to that lane for the foreseeable future. Um, and that might be the lane that they choose. I I’m just saying that I think I side with Jeff as to just taking the best guy and making it work. Like like Dylan Dylan Harper would be the number one pick in a lot of drafts. Yep. Not this one and not the Victor draft but maybe last year.
Last year. Last year, yeah. Don’t overthink it. At number two, don’t overthink it. Don’t be the team that’s like, we already have Clyde Drexler, we can’t have Michael Jordan too. Take the guys that can play and figure it out.
Um, and and you made you brought up a good point, uh, when you were uh, when you were playing devil’s advocate with your own argument earlier about uh, the idea of uh, if the Spurs don’t trade for Janis, then somebody they’re trying to beat will. And that’s that’s pretty likely actually. Like I think Houston Houston’s considered the second most likely team to trade for him and uh, if you’re a Spurs fan, that would be disappointing because I think Houston’s going to be in the running for them next few years. And to seek Houston’s already sort of a year ahead of you, more than a year ahead of you. They they just went through their uh year where they had with the second or third second seed in the West, third seed in the West and and flamed out in the first round. They’ve taken those lumps. Now they’re ready to take their step forward next year. If you add Janis, they’re even farther ahead of you. Um, so that would be uh kind of a fear if you’re the Spurs that you allow somebody else that’s kind of on your timeline to take a step ahead of you. But Jeff also said, I’m I’m praising Jeff’s logic way too much today. That I got a good night’s sleep. That most uh that that it that it’s not a good rationale. It’s not a good reason to do something is because you’re afraid somebody else will. That that that’s that’s not the way you run a franchise.
It is a catch 20 it is a catch 22 in that if you trade for if you’re the Spurs and you trade for Janis, you’re probably still not good enough to compete with the top of the West and there’s no way to really get good enough. You’ve you’ve you’ve landlocked yourself. On the other hand, if he goes to Houston or he goes to Oklahoma City, you’re having to wait out the rest of Janis’s career until you can compete with those teams again. Yep. So it is kind of a catch 22. I think you you think they’d be good enough?
I think that’s I think that’s the fallacy. I think they’d be. Well, I maybe I just I think Oklahoma City even without Janis is going to be a complete beast for the next five years.
I mean, I don’t see.
I don’t yeah. While there’s while they’re while they’re in a 2-2 series with the Nuggets, but I just like they’re not going to get worse from here. They’re only going to get better. That’s true.
They have. Yeah. The Spurs team, the Spurs team last year even with, you know, Chris Paul on it who’s not going to be around, um, and the aging Harrison Barnes, was not a Janisa way from like a top three seed in the West. Let alone getting a top three seed in the West and making it through four rounds of the playoffs. Like they are they are not a That team was not a Janisa way from competing for a title. Just trying to be honest here. And yes, if you if you trade for Janis, you probably um, pull off some more win now moves that could lead to some more improvement. But then you’re really putting all your eggs in the um 2025 to like 2028 window, which is not the window that the Spurs have had in mind for the past few years under Victor. So, yeah, that that’s that’s the drawback. And now, you know, of course, they’re going to go trade for him and we’re going to have to uh we’re we’re going to have to eat all these words. But um I I I’m with Jeff on this.
Well. When you talk, go ahead. Well, when you talk about not overthinking it, I think it applies to what we know about the Spurs. You know, they they’re super patient, they are not going to skip steps and they want that again, that aforementioned very large window. So I mean all all of that points to Harper. You you saying, you say we we’ll have to eat our words, but I don’t know about that. I mean, I I think, um, as with most of these discussions, like you can see both sides. Like like no one’s going to say you traded for Janis, you idiot. No no one’s going to say that. It’s just if if you weigh both sides, I come down on the let’s wait it out side. Like I understand that argument, but I understand both arguments. And again, that doesn’t make good podcasting, understanding both arguments, but I do. Yeah. Yeah. And and uh again, as as uh as vociferous as I’ve been on the anti-trade for Yani side, it’s not like I’m 100% against it. It’s like I’ve still sort of 70, 30 maybe, like I cause cause the the content would be so incredible of uh of covering a team with Janis and Victor and, you know, everybody else that they’d have on it. I I think it’s just sort of not uh Spursian. It’s it’s it’s it’s it’s not uh It’s not Right. It’s not a pound the rock move, if you will. Yeah. So I would I would just do the obvious thing. Take Dylan Harper number two, maybe with that 14th pick, you can get a shooter or some uh some big man help. You can go into free agency, you could sign a shooter. I mentioned a Luke Connard type a couple weeks ago, like someone like that. You can maybe sign a backup big man. People some of these vets will want to come here now, you know. You know, I don’t go get a Brook Lopez or if if, you know, if Milwaukee’s blowing that up, or get a get a Clint Capella or something like that or who’s the guy from uh the the French kid from uh Philadelphia would be like a really cheap option. Yeah. Yakapurtle. Yeah. pirtle. Yeah. Something, you know, you you can there’ll be ways to fill in those blanks. You don’t have to like you don’t have to pass over a a potential star talent at number two just because he doesn’t fit box A or B that you’re looking for. There’s other ways to fill those boxes.
And when you think about, um, the the fit, let’s let’s explore that angle here, uh, and just assume that the Spurs take Dylan Harper. Um, it’s not a square pegging a round hole situation, um, because Daron Fox, pure point guard. Like that’s his position. Um, that’s what he does, pick and roll with Victor, all that stuff. He’s your starting point guard, that has not changed. He’s 27 years old. You have him in what can should be considered his prime years for the next several years. Dylan Harper, sort of a uh, he he he leans point guard but he’s kind of what they call a combo guard one and two. Um, you can play him next to Daron Fox. Like you teams play combo guards next to point guards all the time. That works. And Stefan Castle, he’s also a combo, but he’s got some three to him, right? And and the NBA is positionless. But um, it’s it’s more about who you can guard and Steph Castles. It’s it’s more about who you can guard and Stefan Castle can guard threes. No problem. He can guard wings. Those three guys, while that’s not like the dream way that you you set up an NBA lineup. uh, ideally you’d have one guy of those three who’s just a sharp shooter, um, sniper. Uh, those three guys can sort of coexist on the court at the same time, I would think. Um, and would give teams a lot of problems in the process, uh, having those three guys together. And then yeah, you know, you want and and and maybe that that changes the way you fill out the rest of the lineup, like Victor is not a classic big man in the middle. Like he’s going to he’s going to take care of some of the shooting himself. You need some shooting from that four spot. But that’s not a uh, that’s not an inconceivable mix. I mean, not for nothing and this is going to bother people, but it wouldn’t be I wouldn’t put it past the Spurs to draft a kid at number two and bring him off the bench for his first year. I mean they kind of did that with Steph Castle at number four last year for a lot of it. Yeah. Like you you you might just be starting who everyone thinks they’re going to start already and bring in Harper off the bench. Just at least to start, you know. Yeah, and and shooting still is a a desperate need. And and and I think that uh um, you know, even if they don’t make the pick at 14, that that pick at 14 could be used to acquire some of that veteran type shooting that Jeff mentioned. Like you were trying to draft, you’re trying to draft shooting there. I think Knipple will be long gone. Um, Well, that’s the other Okayson kid could shoot. I I was sort of alluding to that earlier if the Spurs wanted to trade down in the in the in the Knipple range. Yes, yeah, yeah. And and that could be an up. This that’s the least sexy option between taking Dylan Harper and trading for the superstar. Uh, would be find a gu find a team that is in that Knipple range and uh and trade the number two pick to that team, draft Knipple and uh presumably collect more assets in that trade.
Is it is it just because you want to spend the next 10 years saying Knipple? Kind of, kind of. Uh, but yeah, the back to what we said at the beginning, the Spurs have a lots of options, including the big splashy trade for the former MVP one, which we’re not discounting, but uh, I think the the lesson here is that it’s not the uh obvious move that uh some people