The justification for taking Primo at 12 was that he would go higher if he had stayed at Alabama for one more year and declared for the 2022 draft. Obviously, this was an impossible justification, but indulging the counter-factual, would Primo go higher than 12 (his pick) or 9 (assuming that’s the Spurs pick) in this year’s draft?
It depends on how he'd have performed. But when I see players ranked at that range, there's at least one aspect in which they stand out, be that athletically, skills, scoring, defense... Primo's highest selling point is his youth and that he's a good kid. Only SA would take him on that premise.
I don't think he would.
He would be a mid 20s pick in this draft
It was actually shooting, and some unlockable playmaking, plus stout defense. His shooting was fine until his funky landing caused an injury, and they started reworking his shot during the season. That will leave a mark.
Nobody knows. Him playing in college another year could have bumped him with more spotlight.
Or he doesn't show a of a lot and our team messed up.
But nobody here can speak definitively upon the subject because there are too many variables.
Who knows, he definitely shouldn't have been drafted at 12 based off his season at Alabama but the Spurs decided to take a chance and invest in him. I'm sure his role would have changed in his sop re year but who knows how well he would have played, he sat in the corner and shot it 6 times a game his freshman year, the Spurs reached beyond belief but lets see how it plays out.
He’s clearly allowed our coaching staff to reign him in. Classic Spurs developmental type stuff. I like that. Shows he’s coachable and willing to work on evolving his game outside of scoring when a lot of guys get set in their ways early on.
The early indicators tell me he would have likely broken out his second year and played a much bigger role offensively. You could see that fearlessness early in the summer league, preseason and g-league. Then he transitioned to working on certain aspects of his game and took a team first approach when he finished the season on the main squad.
I’m happy with the pick today. I wasn’t on draft day but that’s my own ignorance.
That no one can answer this with with an unequivocal yes goes to show how ty a pick he was.
The justification part of the question is speculation also. We don’t know the Spurs’ rationale nor can we predict the multiverse. Having said that, no, I don’t think he would be ranked top ten.
At this point it doesn't look like the best pick. It was a reach but he can still improve and justify the pick later.
For me, it comes down to this: there's good and bad news with him. I think he will be a very solid player for us, and at times be the best player on the court. Bad news is his ceiling isn't what many of us hoped for long term. But a potentially better Danny Green isn't all that bad. Pick #12 in the 2021 draft, worth it? Not with Alperen Sengun on the board, so probably not unless he develops another part of his game that doesn't seem obvious right now.
Well... in infinite universes, probabilities would have Primo making the top ten in at least... ok, in none.
He'd be far bigger than most NCAA guards. As mentioned, he's also confining himself within sets. Over the summer league he was doing things he no longer does (at this point). It's stupid to think he'd actually fall in this draft -- he'd clearly be an exceptional college sop re -- the question is how good.
I remember some dude for the Longhorns kind of played like Manu like ten years ago. My friend was like, this guy could be just as good, but that was silly. He was doing it against college compe ion. Same thing with Primo in the opposite direction.
It would only be fair to evaluate him based on his g league performance because that would be more on par with the college level.
wow I didn't know about this, was this being reported?
Looking at the players picked after Primo, there's not too many whose stats or contribution stands out apart from these guys:
13) Duarte - 13ppg, 39 starts, 55 GP, garbage Pacers team, 5 years older
18) Tre Mann - 10ppg, 26 starts, 60 GP, beyond garbage OKC team, 6'3 PG not needed on Spurs roster
26) Bones Hyland - 10pts, 69 gms, another 6'3 PG see above
35) Herbert Jones - 9.5pts, 69 starts, great 6'8 PF defender, 4 years older, who could've seen him coming anyway
Based on that it's nothing to judge him harshly at this point. He's got just as much chance to succeed as any player picked after him.
Duarte and Jones are interesting but Duarte particularly was low risk med ceiling and out of the timeline.
I think this thread is a great example of the absurdity of spurs posters here. Ready to write off literally the youngest player in the league who started late in the season for a team that nearly made the playoffs. 4-5 years away from guys we think “might” have been a better pick.
That’s insanity. This forum is ridiculous at times. All indications point to Primo being an impactful player. He doesn’t even need to be an all star for him to be a successful pick.
Missed Sengun: 20.7 min 9.6 pts 5.5 reb 2.6 ast 0.9 blk 0.8 stl. Also could add Moody to the list. Both are 19 y.o.
Comedic gold!! Primo will be ok until he’s not.
lol, you forgot Sengun...the player a few of us were very high on, and who performed very well this year.
Note: Just saw Ariel beat me to it.
Sengun isn't a guard, so no reason to care.
Huh? His list had another non-guard on there.
Also, Primo shouldn't be a guard either given his ball skills are trash.
That makes it WORSE, because we could use a frontcourt player much more so than a backcourt one...
Overall he hasn’t shown much in actual games to be excited about. His best showing was in summer league where he looked confident and very promising. I think the adjustment to his shot mechanics is making him look worse than he is. However, should he not regain his shooting stroke he’ll have a similar or worse situation and trajectory than Markelle Fultz — where there’s no world in which he’s drafted number 1 overall if he can’t shoot at all.
I keep coming back to him honestly being too young and his shot too shaky at this point in development to say. Next season should give better indication of his trajectory.
He ended the season in a whimper. Unlike other rookies getting some playing time in the playoffs, he looked outmatched and looked like he shouldn’t have played at all.
Like others mentioned before me, we don’t have the multiverse chronomicron with appendices and indexes to see in which world he stayed in college and different variations of how that went.
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