With two lottery picks, Spurs can build Wembanyama's core. What should they do? (2024)

The San Antonio Spurs have both feet firmly planted in the Victor Wembanyama era. From the moment he was drafted No. 1 overall in 2023, the franchise’s rebuilding timeline became his. As he goes, they go.

Despite finishing 14th in the Western Conference last season, the Spurs’ road ahead looks pleasant. Wembanyama lived up to the hype, winning Rookie of the Year while becoming the first rookie to earn first-team All-Defense status. After some lottery luck, San Antonio heads into this month’s draft armed with the No. 4 and No. 8 picks, providing them several options to build out the roster. Do they package the two selections to add a readymade lead ball handler and speed up the timeline, or should they add the two best players available? If the latter, which prospects should they target?

I spoke to The Athletic’s senior NBA Draft expert Sam Vecenie to analyze the Spurs’ options for this upcoming NBA Draft.

Kelly Iko: When I think of the Spurs having two top-10 picks, my mind jumps to the Orlando Magic, who had the No. 5 and No. 8 picks in 2021. They took Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner, two key starters who have proven to be home-run selections early on. Could the Spurs also get two legitimate contributors with these picks in a class considered to be weaker than the 2021 or 2023 groups?

Sam Vecenie: Yes, they absolutely could end up with two players who jumpstart the rebuild around Victor Wembanyama. Wagner is a future All-Star, so he’d represent the top-end yield of any pick in this class. But players like him, or better, certainly exist in this class. The Spurs just need to identify them properly.

The most important lesson the Spurs can take from Orlando’s 2021 haul is how well Suggs and Wagner fit within the organizational identity laid out by president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman and the rest of the Magic’s front office once they began their rebuild with the bounty from their 2021 trade of Nikola Vučević to Chicago. Suggs and Wagner each possessed above-average positional size for their roles, and both were two-way players in college. In Wembanyama the Spurs have their centerpiece in place. Their goal now shouldn’t just be to draft talent, but to prioritize players who fit their organizational ethos around Wembanyama and accentuate his gifts.

The Spurs have been successful sticking to their gameplan when drafting talent over the last 25 years. They tend to value two-way players with high feel for the game, such as Dejounte Murray (No. 29 in 2016), Derrick White (No. 29 in 2017), Jeremy Sochan (No. 9 in 2022), Tre Jones (No. 41 in 2020) and Devin Vassell (No. 11 in 2020) — though Vassell’s defensive strengths at Florida State have yet to carry over to the NBA. With Wembanyama around, the Spurs have the chance to build a suffocating defense. They should be emphasizing that end of the floor with their picks.

Iko: We’ve heard a lot about Connecticut’s Stephon Castle in recent days. He recently verbalized his preference to play point guard, and he has fans within the Spurs organization. Do you see a fit there? If so, should he share point guard duties with Jones, or should San Antonio pursue a veteran lead ball-handler?

Vecenie: I love Castle’s fit in San Antonio because he’s the kind of two-way player and competitor that fits next to Wembanyama. To me, the Spurs’ dream should be to have at least four players 6-foot-6 or taller on the floor, all with plus length to cover the court and play stifling point-of-attack defense. If any plays too aggressively on the perimeter, they have Wembanyama behind them to clean things up. Castle fits the bill there. I have a top-three grade on him in the class, so if he’s available at No. 4, he’d be good value for San Antonio.

There would be some concerns about deploying him and Sochan together given each’s shooting deficiencies. Castle will be a passable shooter eventually, but I’d minimize lineups with both of them on the floor as much as possible while each develops. However, this is another benefit of having a center in Wembanyama who can stretch the floor on his own while also handling the ball and creating shots.

I wouldn’t worry too much about Castle’s stated preference to play point guard. Connecticut’s coaching staff raved about Castle’s willingness to take on whatever role necessary to help his team win. He never complained about not playing point guard and still managed to thrive while helping the Huskies win a national title. Plus, it’s now a necessity, not a value-add, for NBA offenses to have multiple ballhandlers. Even if Castle isn’t serving as the team’s primary “point guard,” he will get plenty of reps to initiate plays. Vassell is not a point guard, but his primary offensive usage this season was out of ball screens. The same was true with bigger wings like DeMar DeRozan, Paolo Banchero and Jalen Williams. Jayson Tatum is hardly a point guard, but half of his reps this season came out of ball screens and isolations. You don’t have to be a “point guard” to have the ball in your hands consistently.

In any event, I don’t think Castle is ready to play point guard in the NBA, or even handle a ton of on-ball usage from the jump. He has a feel for navigating ball screens, which he displayed more regularly in high school than he did at Connecticut, but he needs to become a better scorer to avoid defenses dropping under or back on his screens. At a minimum, he’ll need a ballhandler like Jones next to him to help his development.

Keep in mind that while I have a top-three grade on Castle in this weaker 2024 class, he’s more like an average lottery pick in a typical draft, especially in terms of his NBA-readiness.

Iko: Let’s say the No. 8 pick comes around and Castle’s UConn teammate Donovan Clingan is still on the board. Should the Spurs still draft him? We saw last season that pairing Wemby with another big did not go well (sorry, Zach Collins), but should the Spurs rule out drafting another center and trying again? After all, the Rudy Gobert-Karl Anthony-Towns pairing did make the conference finals.

Vecenie: Absolutely, they should rule it out. He’s a five, to me. He proved that this past season.

The benefit of having Wembanyama is the marginal advantage he offers at the center position on both ends of the floor. Defensively, he wasn’t around the basket often enough when playing with Collins, too often chasing around fours while Collins guarded centers. Wembanyama is special because he can step up in ball screens when fives screen for guards; his length traverses the entire paint and pairs with his instincts to allow him to play cat-and-mouse with the ballhandler and the big. More simply: It helps to have arguably the best rim protector in the NBA at the basket more often than not. On offense, the Spurs should want to have Wembanyama at the five because that puts him in the best position to create a speed mismatch.

In Wembanyama, the Spurs can have the best version of Gobert on defense, mixed with Towns’ perimeter game. The reason the Timberwolves acquired Gobert is because Towns couldn’t handle the defensive responsibilities of a five. However, Gobert can’t play on the perimeter, meaning he can’t play the four offensively. Wembanyama can do both, which is the marginal advantage he creates for his teams.

Iko: What is the ideal proportion of building the roster through the draft and free agency? Should the Spurs be patient given Wemby’s age, or should they look to make more aggressive additions now?

Vecenie: The key is to stay flexible and maintain the ability to take advantage of any potential avenue that arises. This offseason isn’t an ideal one for prioritizing the draft or free agency. The draft isn’t elite at the top and this free agency class isn’t awesome — though I do think the Spurs should bring in a veteran or two on a short-term contract to bring positive momentum and some leadership. If no other big move presents itself this summer, they should be patient until next year. The team doesn’t have any bad salary on the books and can roll their cap space over into next year, when their younger players around Wembanyama are closer to their primes.

However, the one roster-building path you didn’t bring up was the potential to explore win-now moves on the trade market. General manager Brian Wright shouldn’t execute a big win-now move for a player who’s, say, 29 years old, not when Wembanyama is still so young. The Spurs must keep their core on a relatively similar age timeline to Wembanyama so the players within it can grow together. But if a star-level player entering his prime years became available, they should explore the option of using their boatload of future draft capital to acquire him.

Iko: Is Wembanyama’s influence deep enough that they should seriously consider using one of those top picks on a c project like Tidjane Salaun, or would that do a disservice to the roster-building process a disservice? The two have a shared nationality, the same agent and other family ties.

Vecenie: I don’t think the Spurs have reached the point where they should be prioritizing Wembanyama’s influence. However, Salaun is a prospect worth considering in his own right as a prospect. I have a lower grade on Salaun than No. 8 and worry about his skill overlap with Sochan, but he is a lottery-caliber prospect in a class that’s flat in terms of top-10 talent.

Salaun plays hard, possesses good timing as a cutter and is excellent at running the court in transition. He creates opportunities for teammates by running hard to draw attention and open up lanes for teammates. He’s shown serious defensive improvement throughout the year — while he’s still a bit jumpy and needs to improve his fundamentals, he’s active and covers lots of ground with his 7-foot-plus wingspan.

My main concerns are Salaun’s offensive skill, feel and absence of vertical pop. Salaun’s footwork as a driver is poor right now and hinders his finishing; he made 43 percent of his layups this season, an exceptionally low number for a coordinated 6’9 forward. He made 31.6 percent of his 3s this year, but has a high release and remains relatively balanced throughout his motion, so he’ll be a fine shooter by the time he’s in his mid-20s.

Salaun’s best long-term role is as a high-end garbage man who brings value by playing hard, cutting, rebounding and adding tremendous value on defense. Perhaps he could be to Wembanyama what the Nuggets’ Aaron Gordon has been Nikola Jokić. The problem is that’s also Sochan’s ideal role. If the Spurs still like Sochan, they shouldn’t consider Salaun. If they’re less high on Sochan’s development, picking Salaun would make more sense.

Iko: Is there any scenario where the Spurs should trade one or both of their picks?

Vecenie: I wouldn’t trade both of them, but I can envision them moving one. I also expect them to trade the No. 35 pick or use it on a player they can stash overseas next season. They already have seven players with two years or less of NBA experience on the roster. Adding three more would make for a bad recipe.

Perhaps the Spurs make a consolidation trade involving some of their young players. Maybe that includes No. 8, maybe it doesn’t, but they should listen if a team presented them an offer with a more accomplished younger player entering their prime. For instance, if Cleveland made Darius Garland available, I’d be willing to include the No. 8 pick to acquire him. But it’d take a player like that to part with either lottery selection.

The Spurs could also trade down, especially if Clingan falls beyond the top three. The teams picking from No. 4 to No. 8 all have young centers on their roster: Wembanyama with the Spurs, Jalen Duren with the Pistons, Mark Williams with the Hornets and Deandre Ayton (and Robert Williams III) with the Blazers. That might entice a team picking below them to trade up to get Clingan, and the Spurs having the No. 4 pick puts them in the driver’s seat in such a scenario. Alternatively, if Clingan somehow fell down to No. 8 without someone trading up — a scenario I don’t expect to happen — the Spurs could trade down the board and pick up extra value.

(Top photo: Suzanne Cordeiro / AFP via Getty Images)