I've thought about that, and wrote about it in the tear-down article I did a while ago. The Spurs were 7-14 at the time and, historically, the 8th seed in the west would win at least 48 games. Since then, however, it's looking increasingly likely that the 8th seed will be below 500.
The Spurs still have a great chance of making the playoffs and are going to be in the mix come the trade deadline. It's hard to see a team who's only missed the playoffs twice in 30 seasons, punting and tanking when there is a pretty good chance that they'll get the 8th seed.
Picks in the 15-17 range aren't unvaluable, especially to the Spurs. Having that and extending their streak is probably the best and most realistic outcome, at this point.