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:
[music fades in]
[Narrator]: This episode is brought to you by Chevy Silverado. When it’s time for you to ditch the blacktop and head off-road, do it in a truck that says “no to nothing,” the Chevy Silverado Trail Boss. Get the rugged capability of its C71 suspension and 2-inch factory lift, plus impressive torque and towing capacity thanks to an available Duramax 3-liter turbo diesel engine. Where other trucks call it quits, you’ll just be getting started. Visit chevy.com to learn more.
[Narrator]: Summer’s here, and Nordstrom has everything you need for your best-dressed season ever. From beach days and weddings to weekend getaways and your everyday wardrobe. Discover stylish options under $100 from tons of your favorite brands like Mango, Skims, Princess Polly, and Madewell. It’s easy, too, with free shipping and free returns, in-store order pickup, and more. Shop today in stores online at nordstrom.com or download the Nordstrom app.
[music fades in]
Mike Finger: 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 writers, 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 cageers 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?
[Tom Orsborn]: Yeah, Brian, 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 no, it was interesting last night that he um, 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 were 140 combinations that year, and the Rocket’s 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 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.
Mike Finger: And I guess there’s a possible They do own some Atlanta picks, so I guess I was just thinking you could go back with him with him Spurs handling the Atlanta picks. But that leads us to the natural next topic of conversation here, after we get past just the the shellshock, 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, competence always pays off. It’s good karma. I’m not sure that the Spurs are going to make this pick. And I’ll I’ll start the conversation with just the what we know. Uh, what we know is there’s a fella from Rutgers, the college basketball hotbed 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. They’re they’re there’s some outlier takes out there which which you know, there’s always somebody trying to be 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 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, De’Aaron 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. Uh, 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 Giannis? 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.”
Jeff McDonald: It’s 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 it’s I think it’s some I think it’s just proof that God hates the Spurs.
Mike Finger: Yeah. cursed franchise.
Jeff McDonald: Or it’s rigged. It’s got to be rigged. [laughs] Yes. What a curse. Yeah, the lottery is 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 Cleveland.
Jeff McDonald: Like 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. What was the first one? I’m like being interviewed and you ask I just have a three-part question now I can’t remember any of the parts.
Mike Finger: We’re going to start with the one that’s going to get all the people riled up and just say, does it Is Is do you have to use this pick now to get Giannis?
Jeff McDonald: Do you have to? Oh, absolutely have to. There’s no have to. No.
Mike Finger: See, that’s why I post the question that way because you do not have to.
Jeff McDonald: I think I think I mean, someone asked me, does this make it does this increase the odds of of trading for Giannis? 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 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 Giannis.
Jeff McDonald: I think I think I mean the main the main issue to me is I think you’re is that team in Oklahoma City. And I realize OKC is 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 Giannis, 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, Giannis 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 build build through the draft, and 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 Giannis is to keep him from going to Oklahoma City and lengthening that with or Houston, 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.
Mike Finger: I really hate everything that you just said. Like everything, because I agree with all of it.
Jeff McDonald: Yes! And I I want I want to debate you. I wanted to debate somebody.
Mike Finger: It’s just It I think that you you had it exactly right, and that makes for a really boring podcast.
Jeff McDonald: We we needed to throw down intellectually.
Mike Finger: And it’s just not going to happen. I didn’t want to have to. I think that like just we talked about it two weeks ago, the thought of Giannis 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. upside for them doing it.
Jeff McDonald: I mean, it would work. It would work. I just don’t know that if it it works good enough. crazy as that sounds.
Mike Finger: But you want someone to play.
Nick Talbot: I’ll argue with you.
Mike Finger: Okay. I’ll argue with you. Okay. So you just have this 7-foot four 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? I mean I mean not maybe not maybe 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.
Nick Talbot: So So sometimes you just need to know go for what you can.
Mike Finger: Thank you for doing this because.
Nick Talbot: I think I think Giannis can give you a window to say, “Okay, we’re this is our championship window.” Victor and Giannis can at least get you one championship, maybe two, and then put 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.
Mike Finger: Thank you so much Nick for giving me some points to shoot down because that’s exactly That’s exactly what I needed.
Nick Talbot: Your Your You’re You’re the voice of the fan.
Mike Finger: Sometimes you have to play that devil’s advocate, but Yana can be the champion. It’s more about exactly I can 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, all of what Nick said make make sense at first, but okay, if if Victor 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 the backup plan when you have Victor Wembanyama. I don’t think that’s the smart way to do things. You you want to build with Victor Wembanyama. You you don’t want to say, “Oh, if he’s not around then we need in 10 years then we need to make the most of it now.” I 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 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 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 Giannis 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 don’t immediately become a championship team. So Giannis is 30 years old. And if you figure you need like 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 Keldon Johnson hasn’t played in the playoffs. Uh, if if Jeremy Sochan 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, to Jeff’s point, Giannis is 33. And he’s past his prime. And everyone’s getting really really expensive. And so my and and I’m not trying to be so like strident against Giannis. I’m just making the argument 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 if that guy’s going to be that good, why not take the 20-year-old and give yourself to to Nick’s point about 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 De’Aaron Fox. When they traded for De’Aaron Fox at the deadline, some people said the one drawback to that was he was too old and he was 27. So, 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 Giannis. Uh, Tom, you can weigh in on any of this.
[Tom Orsborn]: Uh, Tom’s on mute.
Nick Talbot: I’ll offer one other point.
Mike Finger: Go but but go ahead and and counter Nick.
Nick Talbot: Sorry Sorry about Sorry Sorry about that.
Jeff McDonald: You can 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 Giannis are very low. So you’re probably never going to get a player as good as to go next to it.
Jeff McDonald: Good good response. I mean, I mean that’s just the way it is.
Nick Talbot: Giannis is is there’s no guarantee Victor’s going to be as good as Giannis. I mean, that’s probably not true, but, you know, Giannis 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.
Mike Finger: Nick, let me ask you this. I agree. The chances that Dylan Harper ever will be as good as as Giannis 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 uh Giannis in 2028, Giannis making $60 million a year at age 33. Who will be the more valued asset in 2028? Dylan Harper at the end of his rookie contract at age 22 or Giannis at 33 past his prime making $60 million a year.
Mike Finger: No no I mean basketball. I mean I mean I mean which which asset would you rather have on your team trying to win a championship? Just just to 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?
Nick Talbot: On on the court you think that you Okay, but again, you’re not you’re discounting the you’re not counting the salary cap, which is what you said, then Giannis. That’s a he’s a guarantee. Harper’s not a guarantee. He could be a flop.
Mike Finger: Giannis is a guaranteed age 33?
Nick Talbot: I I mean look at him. I mean he’s a freak. He’s He’s not He’s not Zion Williamson. He’s not over there eating cheeseburgers or whatever having triples a week. That guy is just a chiseled guy. I mean he hasn’t had a huge injury history. He’s not Anthony Davis.
Nick Talbot: I I I I think I I take I take Giannis on the court. I take Giannis at 33. Do I take him at 35, 36? That also factors into it. maybe maybe not. But 33, I think he’s still going to be Giannis.
Mike Finger: See, it’s it’s but but it brings up it’s I’m glad because It’s where these these great players kind of saw their and LeBron James start seeing decline, you know. And that’s what the Spurs are building towards is they as they want the their window is 2027, 2028, that that area through like the early 2030s. And and Giannis doesn’t fit into that. And yes, I realize 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 Giannis 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 decent conversation to have, and Tom, you can jump in whenever you want.
[Tom Orsborn]: If if Harper fulfills his promise of being favorably compared to Cade Cunningham, I mean that’s. That’s a solid solid number two at to pair with Victor. 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. that window though. It’s a rather large window. It’s it’s it’s rather large.
Mike Finger: What are you looking out upon in Chicago time?
[Tom Orsborn]: The river, the river. It’s nice, very nice for you. 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 this, you know, having sustainability for for the future for a long time. And Cunningham like Mike said at age 19, if I mean, Harper at age 19, if he compares to Cunningham, that’s that’s a hell of a number two.
Nick Talbot: Hey Hey, can you see Trump Tower from your window?
[Tom Orsborn]: No, I cannot. Okay, just That makes the window. Yeah.
Mike Finger: Anyway, the So it’s not it’s not the greatest window we ever saw. Right, right. But it’s But that leads Tom, that’s that leads to another option here, which it’s not just it’s not just Dylan Harper or Giannis. There are middle grounds. There are there are When I think Brian Wright mentioned to Tom Orsborn coming out of the of the drawing room yesterday that the Spurs have the pick of the litter. Is that right? I think that that struck me, yeah. the litter is not just the 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 somebody else really really wants Dylan Harper who needs a lead guard, the Spurs kind of have tuned now. You know, you could trade down a couple spots if if they had somebody targeted that four or five or six or somewhere along there, and then collect more stuff to go with it. I think the Spurs are going to have a lot of options coming their way. I think they’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. I don’t think that someone other than Dylan Harper is going to be taken second. I’m I’m I’m no Hey you know the guru. But I like Ace Bailey is 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. Really really really good looking athlete. He just doesn’t didn’t do much this year. Friend friend of the podcast John Hollinger who I think saw Ruker’s in person. I think John saw Ruker’s in person a bunch this year. Had his list of 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 the point is like Ace Bailey is is a project. He’s not close to to being 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 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 if the Spurs are that team or not. And another team could be the Milwaukee Bucks if the Spurs trade for Giannis or it could be like say, does Utah want to trade up a couple spots and get him? And uh does that bring like Lauri Markkanen back into the to the discussion? He’s He’s a very very very poor man’s Giannis.
Jeff McDonald: I’m just I’m just saying.
Mike Finger: And I don’t think there’s the Lauri Markin thing is going to happen at all. I just through that out as an example of of take a lower level type of guy and and maximize that that asset that the Spurs just got. You You want to know what I would do if I was Brian Wright?
Jeff McDonald: It’s it’s going to break the podcast podcastverse. I wouldn’t overthink it, and I would take Dylan Harper.
Jeff McDonald: And I’ve heard the arguments. “Well, they already have this guy and that guy,” but it like it’s this Has anybody watched the NBA in 2025? Like it’s not really about positions. Like I yes, I get, “Yeah, well 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 fifth or whatever. But take take the best player. you can play all those guys. If they’re as good if they’re as good as you think they are, you can play all those guys.
Mike Finger: Yep. And the the other that’s the other counter to the Giannis argument is that um what’s the last if if you trade for Giannis, you’re building a a super team. You’re you’re building around basically three, four guys who are going to be making a of of of a a ton of money in a few years and you’re going to have to find that minimums 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. It’s that the there’s cautionary tales left and right named 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 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 Giannis, 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 has won a title and all that type of stuff. But you are you are limited to that lane for the foreseeable future. And that might be the lane that they choose. 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. Not this one, and not the Victor draft, but maybe last year.
Jeff McDonald: Last year Last year.
Mike Finger: Just 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.”
Mike Finger: Take the guys that can play and figure it out. 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 the idea of if the Spurs don’t trade for Giannis 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 the 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 year where they had what the second or third second seat 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, you’re even farther ahead of you. 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 that it’s not a good rationale. It’s not a good reason to do something. It’s because you’re afraid somebody else will. That that that’s not the way you run a franchise. It 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 Giannis, 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 Giannis’s career until you can compete with those teams again.
Nick Talbot: I think that’s the follow.
Jeff McDonald: Is it gonna be good enough? I think that’s the false here. I think they’re well, I maybe I just I think Oklahoma City even without Giannis is going to be a complete beast for the next five years. And I I don’t see I don’t yeah. And 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.
Mike Finger: They have.
Jeff McDonald: The Spurs team, the Spurs team last year even with, you know, Chris Paul on it, who’s not going to be around, um the aging Harrison Barnes was not a Giannis away from like a top three seat in the West. Let alone getting a top three seed in the West and making it through four rounds of the playoffs. Like they they are not a Giannis That team was not a Giannis away from competing for a title. I’m just trying to be honest here. And yes, if you if you trade for Giannis, you probably 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 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’s that’s 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, I mean 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’re super patient. They’re not going to skip steps, and they want that, again, that after mentioned very large window. So I mean all of that points to Harper. You You’ve seen You’ve seen we won’t 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 treated 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.
Mike Finger: Yeah. And And uh again, as as uh as vociferous as I’ve been on the anti-trade-for-Giannis side, it’s not like I’m 100% against it. It’s like I’ve still sort of 70-30, maybe, like cuz cuz the like the content would be so incredible of uh of covering a team with Giannis and Victor and you know, everybody else that they’d have on it. I I think it’s just sort of not Spurssian. It’s It’s It’s It’s not uh right. It’s not a pound the rock move, if you will. 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 Kennard type a couple weeks ago. Like someone like that. You can maybe sign a backup big man. like people some of these vets will want to come here now, you know. You know, I don’t go get a Brooke 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 the the the French kid from Philadelphia would be like a really cheap option. Like Gabuseli. Gabuseli, yeah. Jakob Pertle. Yeah. 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.
Mike Finger: And when you think about um the the fit. Let’s let’s explore that angle here, and just assume that the Spurs take Dylan Harper. It’s not a square peg in a round hole situation, because De’Aaron Fox pure point guard. Like that’s his position. 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. You can play him next to De’Aaron Fox. Like 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 it’s it’s more about who you can guard, and Steph Can. 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 you know, you want and and maybe that that changes the way you fill out the rest of the lineup. Like Victor’s not a classic big man in the middle. Like he’s going 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.
Jeff McDonald: 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 Harper off the bench. Just at least to start, you know.
Mike Finger: Yep. And And shooting still is a desperate need. And uh and and I think that uh, you