OFFICIAL 2024 SPURSTALK DRAFT DAY THREAD

[Chinook]

https://x.com/jmcdonald_saen/status/...cbAMOAEHj_SvkA

My brain basically exploded inside my skull from the sure implication of that.

[baseline bum]

I don't think Carter was a smokescreen, just due diligence. Every team Carter worked with raved about him. He's older, smaller, and hasn't developed very well at the pg position. Struggled with top tier defenses that'll he will see a lot more of in the NBA. Tough to spend a top 10 lottery pick on that when you already have younger prospects that won't cost 8 Mil a year.

Being loud on Carter and mum on the guy Castle they actually wanted sounds like a smokescreen to me. Can't believe any of this you hear about the Spurs at draft time.

[baseline bum]

So what's the "ideal" conservative path forward here?

They hit on one of the decent players still around at 35 like Smith, Filipowski, Mitc , Klintman or Kolek. Then, they use their cap space to bring in a rotational forward whose team might want to trade him for salary relief (Barnes, Hunter, Wiggins) and their RE to bring in a caretaker wing for the bench (Richardson or Graham)

Castle, Jones, Wesley
Vassell, Richardson, Branham
Barnes, Johnson, Champangie
Sochan, Smith, Cissoko
Wembanyama, Collins, Bassey

I mean, IS this the worst-case scenario? No. Castle probably shouldn't be starting, but if they love him so much he might end up doing it anyway. The bench isn't horrible, but the lack of spacing in that first unit feels like a fatal flaw. It's sad that it's more realistic that the Spurs sell their cap space for an insta-waive and a few seconds after selling off the seconds they already have this year for cash.

In that scenario I think Barnes might be your starting 4, though not sure Castle is going to get the starting job right away so maybe the point is moot.

[BackHome]

Furphy with 35 would go a long way to redeem this draft imho

Yeah, I would use some of our seconds to get him - Some other players I really like would be:
Klintman -SF/PF
Mogbo - PF
Scheierman - SF
AJ Mitc -PG/SG
Djurisic -SG/SF

[DAF86]

7 years ago in 2017 we were battling GSW in Western finals with GSW won the NBA le that year. Ever since we have been in lottery for years while GSW missed playoff 3 times in the last five years. KAT will be 35 years old by then. A lot of things may happen in 6-7 years.

We didn't have a 24 year old, healthy, superstar back then, tbh.

Also, let's say the best scenario materializes and the Wolves suck. How much does a rookie (even a lottery one) is really gonna help Wemby while he's, hopefully, contending for championships?

The absolute best case scenario is that those picks turn into Anthony Edwards somewhere down the road. If that happens, then I will apologize and personally flight to San Antonio just to suck Brian Wright's .

[Mr. Body]

My biggest problem with the trade is the bet against Ant Edwards. The Spurs are betting a 29 year old Ant Edwards is gonna provide a pick better or equal to the 8th pick in this weak draft. I don’t see it.

What I forget is that Utah has all their picks either outright or swaps, although it looks like they still have their 2028. They can make moves, but they've been stripped of remaking the roster with much by way of the draft.

[Mr. Body]

Yeah, I would use some of our seconds to get him - Some other players I really like would be:
Klintman -SF/PF
Mogbo - PF
Scheierman - SF
AJ Mitc -PG/SG
Djurisic -SG/SF

Boston took Scheierman.

[DAF86]

"Personally fly" the no edit function, tbh.

[scott]

That's not how swaps work. The Spurs can only trade swaps to picks they own. They can't trade a swap that another team gave them without also including their picks. Like the Spurs have one pick in 2030, which is the best of Dallas, Minny's (top-1 protected) and their natural pick. The Spurs can either trade that pick outright or let a new team take the best of their pick or (the best of SAS/MINN/DAL).

It's a bad deal. To put it into perspective, the Spurs got the 2030 Dallas swap by taking on an MLE's worth of salary and moving four firsts. This year they got a worse swap as half the payment for a top-10 pick. It's bad. It's made worse by the fact that SA might well be renting their space again and might be another swap or two for the trouble. Just awful stuff.

To put an extra fine point on the value of a swap, this article does a great job of articulating it: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2022/1...aft-swap-picks

For those who don't want to bother reading - historically, a swap turns out to be equal value to an early second rounder.

So the Spurs traded (on value) a Top-10 pick for a unprotected FRP 7 years from now and an early SRP. Absolutely horrendous.

[rascal]

Spurs have ac ulated enough valuable first round picks that they can put a few into a package to land a star but not sure they are looking to make a big trade like that.

It's not in their character to trade draft picks from established stars.

[vy65]

Spurs have ac ulated enough valuable first round picks that they can put a few into a package to land a star but not sure they are looking to make a big trade like that.

It's not in their character to trade draft picks from established stars.

This is a good point. The next time they put one of those types of deals together will be the first time they put one of those types of deals together

[DAF86]

In that scenario I think Barnes might be your starting 4, though not sure Castle is going to get the starting job right away so maybe the point is moot.

Castle needs to start, and I'll say he needs to start at PG. Give the "Castle at PG" experiment as much times as possible, as soon as possible. That would accelerate his development. If it works, great; if it doesn't, we get a top pick in the stacked 25 draft. Win/win.

And that's it, no more tanking after 25.

[rascal]

.

[CitizenDwayne]

This is a good point. The next time they put one of those types of deals together will be the first time they put one of those types of deals together

Exactly. There’s no trade coming. They think they did a good job tonight

[scott]

Also, it's worth pointing out the obvious: ac ulating more draft capital doesn't really mean much when all you do is punt it (#33 last year, #8 this year).

[The Truth #6]

That trade. Oof. Fans want to see the FO prioritize winning. Drafting Dillingham felt like an assertive statement in that direction. And then they trade it away. I didn't like losing Dillingham. Then I pondered what we received. It feels ambiguous at best. It could pay off but feels like a passive, overly cautious move.

[heyheymymy]

By that same argument Ant could be on another team by 2030

Or the picks could be traded to another team by then

Or Carter/Dillingham/Buzelis/Williams could be out of the league by then

Or equivalent to what you would select #25-30 ish from MIN 2030 somehow

[Mr. Body]

Being loud on Carter and mum on the guy Castle they actually wanted sounds like a smokescreen to me. Can't believe any of this you hear about the Spurs at draft time.

Their deafening silence about Castle practically affirmed to me that he was their guy. "Um... Castle. Castle who? White Castle? The burger place?"

[Mr. Body]

Spurs have ac ulated enough valuable first round picks that they can put a few into a package to land a star but not sure they are looking to make a big trade like that.

It's not in their character to trade draft picks from established stars.

It's not their character at all. They build through the draft.

We need to accept that their strategy is to put big bundles of resources out in the wilderness down the way. That's what this is. They're giving a shot of having a lottery pick or two when their own picks are in the late 20s.

[Trainwreck2100]

We didn't have a 24 year old, healthy, superstar back then, tbh.

Also, let's say the best scenario materializes and the Wolves suck. How much does a rookie (even a lottery one) is really gonna help Wemby while he's, hopefully, contending for championships?

The absolute best case scenario is that those picks turn into Anthony Edwards somewhere down the road. If that happens, then I will apologize and personally flight to San Antonio just to suck Brian Wright's .

the only teams that were in the 2017 playoffs and 2024 playoffs were the thunder and clippers and both those teams are completely different from each other in terms of personnel

[Mr. Body]

To put an extra fine point on the value of a swap, this article does a great job of articulating it: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2022/1...aft-swap-picks

For those who don't want to bother reading - historically, a swap turns out to be equal value to an early second rounder.

So the Spurs traded (on value) a Top-10 pick for a unprotected FRP 7 years from now and an early SRP. Absolutely horrendous.

Eh... most swaps are just random bull . The swaps with Boston, Dallas, and Minny are pretty calculated accounting for where those teams might be when those drafts come up. Same way they saw where Atlanta might be when their picks start coming due.

[baseline bum]

Statistically, he was one of the best scorers from his draft class last year. He was pick 20. No pick from 15 down has a higher ppg than him. Only a couple from 10 down.

Offensively, he's been everything he was advertised to be. A bucket. For a 20th pick, he has been pretty good, especially in comparison to those drafted after him.

He's a traffic cone on defense and why im not a big fan of him but he even showed improvements there.

He's still just 21 years old. As a starter in the NBA, he averaged 11 ppg.

Expectations for these young prospects are so unrealistic.

Branham finished the season 571 out of 572 on VORP. When you're looking up almost 40 slots to James Wiseman is bad.

https://www.basketball-reference.com...ed_stats::vorp

[FireMicoHalili]

There is 0 value in a pick that far out. If the Spurs made that pick available in a trade this off season they are getting almost nothing for it. Which is why Minnesota was fine giving it to the Spurs. Because you know, they could care less about worrying how things might be for them in 6 and 7 years.

If I cared enough about this team I would be alarmed at the simple things our front office has failed to grasp. In order for some teams to make good deals, some other teams have to make bad ones. At least we'll always have the Duncan era.

there is 0 value in that pick that far out now. There will always be teams willing to blow it up and looking for draft equity to rebuild. As it stands you have a lot of players developing in the roster and just so many minutes to apportion. You have guys like Ousmane Dieng languishing in OKC.

[flox]

Kram's article is pretty bad. His swap analysis only looks at the point difference between the two of actually executed swaps - ie the value of a swap realized. He kinda gets the point a little when he talks about when a swap is actually worth it - when you have a chance to jump into a lottery winning selection. Until the swap is actually realized, there is time value and extra lottery ball value that greatly outweighs the the value at execution
.

[Obstructed_View]

I hope you're right, but the same people who seem to think that are the ones who thought Primo was so valuable it was worth suppressing sexual-harassment accusations to protect him. It's getting harder and hard for me to put stock into their ability to identify keepers.

Do we know that the Spurs did that? That they knew he did this before they drafted him?