Draft 2026 NBA Draft Prospects Thread

Do we trade away our pick or draft a player?

  • Draft

    Votes: 32 86.5%

  • Trade

    Votes: 3 8.1%

  • Cash Considerations

    Votes: 2 5.4%
  • Total voters
    37
OK Computer said:
But why assume our 1st rd pick won’t be that deep bench piece? With DJG and Carter likely ahead of him, he would likely be a 2-3 year project just as you’re describing in this post.
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I honestly assumed that our 1st round pick would be a Sochan replacement, whether through trade or the draft tbh
 
Worth mentioning (again, probably) that we have 3 2nd round picks in the next draft. Are there challenges to using all three picks and stashing them in Austin, besides the possible downside of moving on from the likes of Ingram and Minix?
 
Guru of Nothing said:
Worth mentioning (again, probably) that we have 3 2nd round picks in the next draft. Are there challenges to using all three picks and stashing them in Austin, besides the possible downside of moving on from the likes of Ingram and Minix?
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A second round pick would have to agree in advance to sign a two way, in lieu of the minimum contract needed to secure his rights.
 
Exstatic said:
A second round pick would have to agree in advance to sign a two way, in lieu of the minimum contract needed to secure his rights.
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So say the Spurs see three players they like in 2026 draft, one for each 2nd round pick. They can draft them outright and simply extend each a minimum contract (which I'm guessing is about $2M per season) and the Spurs are on the hook for two years, so the opportunity cost would be cutting, say, Minix, Ingram, and Bismack and eating whatever is leftover in their contract guarantees? ... and if after a year and we don't like one of the new prospects, we can repeat the process to cut and eat small contract?

Am I close to understanding this process? I'm mainly trying to understand where the friction comes into play such that the FO constantly punts on developing 2nd round picks. Is it really about the cash considerations?
 
assuming the spurs re-sign HB and dont do any crazy roster shake-up... we will have basically our entire rotation back and under contract next year. the other FAs are Sochan (out of rotation), Olynyk (only getting 11mpg despite only 3 of his games being with Wemby active), Jordan McLaughlin, Bismack Biyombo, Lindy Waters, and the 2-way guys.

im sure the plan is for Carter Bryant to be brought along and fighting for more minutes in year 2 than he's getting now

all that to say, the spurs dont really need to draft someone with the hopes they will be an instant rotation player, so they can kind of just take whatever they want. draft a third center who can spend a year or two developing as Kornet ages (last year of Luke's deal is not guaranteed and he is 30). draft another SG/SF type who can provide shooting other than Vassell/Champagnie. draft another big wing in case CB's development doesnt pan out, HB ages, and you dont want to be forced to start Keldon. whatever they want to do.

basically anything other than a pure PG
 
Guru of Nothing said:
So say the Spurs see three players they like in 2026 draft, one for each 2nd round pick. They can draft them outright and simply extend each a minimum contract (which I'm guessing is about $2M per season) and the Spurs are on the hook for two years, so the opportunity cost would be cutting, say, Minix, Ingram, and Bismack and eating whatever is leftover in their contract guarantees? ... and if after a year and we don't like one of the new prospects, we can repeat the process to cut and eat small contract?

Am I close to understanding this process? I'm mainly trying to understand where the friction comes into play such that the FO constantly punts on developing 2nd round picks. Is it really about the cash considerations?
Click to expand...
An NBA contract has to be on your 15 man roster, even if you send them to Austin for that whole season. A two way is better for full time Austin development. Cutting loose two ways like Minix and Ingram doesn’t create that room, and if you want a full NBA caliber roster, this would work against that. We should have 4 roster spots opening, but if you want to compete deep into the playoffs, most or all of those will be filled by current NBA players. You need that kind of depth to punch with OKC.
 
Joshua Jefferson is finally getting some more attention. (noceilings pushed him up to 33 on their last mock). Best player on a top 4 team. Improved in every area and now shots the ball well. He is a bit slow, but he is a great passer and ball handler for a big man and a high IQ player. My favorite for a 2nd rounder. Might climb to 1st round if he plays that well all year.
 
With the way we are playing and the even the Hawks, I do not see us having a legitimate shot at any of those top guys that have been talked about earlier in this thread. I went front court with this draft. I feel our backcourt is pretty darn solid with Fox, Castle, Harper, Champ, and Jones-Garcia. Then, we have Vassell, Barnes, Johnson, and Bruant as our other 3 wing players.

I do have 3 players who I would be happy to have as Spurs.

1A - PF Hannes Steinbach - Washington
6'11 220 20yr freshman
18.5 ppg
12.8 rbs
2.7 ast
1.0 blk
0.8 stl
.631 fg
.667 3fg
.735 ft

1B - PF JT Toppon - TT
6'9 230 20 yr junior
20.8 ppg
11.5 rbs
2.4 ast
1.3 blk
1.4 stl
.538 fg
.118 3fg
.489 ft

2 - SF Dailyn Swain - Texas
6'8 225 20yr junior
15.7 ppg
6.9 rbs
3.5 ast
0.3 blk
1.6 stl
.566 fg
.292 3fg
.833 ft


Fox, Harper, Jones-Garcia
Castle, Champ,
Vassell, Johnson, Bryant, Swain
Barnes, Steinbach, Toppin
Wemby, Kornet, Olynyk
 
Aday Mara still sitting at #42 on Tankathon. Would immediately be servicable as 3rd string center, and should challenge Luke too for #2 C. Most recent game vs Villanova below.

 
Man, I have no idea how good he's actually going to be as a pro, but purely from a needs standpoint Yaxel checks literally every box that you want for a PF next to Wemby which is why I think I've got some blinders on when it comes to his faults

PF ideal needs:
- 6'9-6'11" with positive wingspan - measured 6'8.5" no shoes with 7'4 wingspan at the combine
- Secondary rim protection - played center for UAB 2 years ago and recorded a 7.3% BLK%; playing wing this year and still recording 5% BLK%
- Switchability - routinely defends at the perimeter as a wing this year
- Rebounding - 11.6/26 OREB%/DREB% during his 2 years at UAB playing center and point forward, which are excellent but not elite figures; at 7/18 this year playing on the perimeter with the biggest frontcourt in the country
- Big wing defense - this one is a bit of an known - will have to see how he does vs other high level wings throughout the year
- Shooting - Career 79% FT shooter; shooting 41% on 9 3PA/100 this year

Basically, he went through the exact same thing that Jeremy Sochan did the last 3 years - 2 years ago he played center, last year he played point forward, and this year he's playing big wing. Except instead of failing at every step, he seems to be succeeding at every step, just against much lower competition at an older age. He's up to almost 3:1 AST:TO and has maintained his elite STL/BLK combination even against high level competition. He's got the highest impact metrics of any player in the country this year and the only player close is 18 year old Cam Boozer. Yesterday when he decided to finally assert himself against Maryland after Michigan got down, he absolutely took them apart and ended up with a 29/8/9/3/2 on 73/80/100 shooting in an 18 point win. Before that, he was happily blending into the background putting up mediocre counting stats on elite efficiency as Michigan was blowing out top 25 teams by 30-40.

Like, I realize the track record for >23 year olds in the draft is absolutely horrendous. Chris Duarte is the example that always gets brought up, but even more recently, dudes like Dalton Knecht, Baylor Scheierman, Terrence Shannon Jr, Nique Clifford, and Kobe Brown have all looked like varying levels of ass after getting drafted. Of the two guys who look like success stories, Cam Johnson is a high level role player. Tristan da Silva looks like he's on his way to being a decent role player. And that's really it.

To his credit, 23 year old Yaxel laps every other 23 year old who has ever been drafted from a productivity standpoint and according to pretty much every metric:
https://www.tankathon.com/players/c...a-silva--terrence-shannon-jr--cameron-johnson
There is also the possibility that he can be even better since he has only been seriously playing organized basketball for something like 6 years, giving him outs for a Pascal Siakam-like late development trajectory.

My primary concern for Yaxel is that 1) He does not really pop on tape - he sort of just does everything within the flow of the offense and I don't know how that translates when he's going up against guys who are more athletic than him and 2) His athleticism seems to be suboptimal, as he recorded only a 31 inch max vert with mediocre combine testing and low dunk numbers every season. I don't think he will be a complete bust, but there is a decent chance that he will only become something like an Obi Toppin with better feel but worse athleticism.

I really can't quit this guy though, even dating back to middle of last season when he was at UAB, because I can't see too many other guys that check every box that the Spurs need. I was high on CMB last year for his high level defense, rebounding, and feel, but his shooting was a major question mark. PJ Washington is the only guy in the league who checks most of the above boxes and is on a reasonable contract. Those two February games against Purdue and Duke are going to be a real benchmark to see if he can continue to dominate.
 
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Obviously depends on where we pick, but going with an older player like Yaxel who's 23 makes a ton of sense. Can contribute right away and you have him locked into a rookie deal while he enters his prime. He's currently mocked between 13th and 20th pick.

 
You can now sort of see what Brian Wright's vision is for the next few years from a roster construction standpoint:

Big 3 (4):
On ball creation
Castle
Harper
Wemby
(Fox)

Medium 3:
Off-ball wings; switchability across multiple positions
2-3: Vassell
3-4: Keldon/Barnes/Champagnie
4-5: Olynyk

Backup Center: Kornet
3-D Guard (10-15 minute energy guard for fast on-ball creators - Davion Mitchell, Keon Ellis, Miles McBride, Jamal Shead, Cason Wallace, etc.)
Designated shooter: (The only guy allowed to be a minus defender; movement shooter - Duncan Robinson, Sam Hauser, etc.)

That's a pretty complete 10 man rotation

I think 3-D guard and designated shooter positions can easily be filled through small trades and 2nd round draft picks, as they are not typically highly sought after pieces for non-contenders who prefer to swing on initiators

For everyone else outside of the big 3, I'm not certain what the team will look like in 2-3 years. Fox's contract may become problematic in 3 years and initiators take time to develop. Vassell looks great now, but his contract may become a casualty in a few years if the Spurs want to keep Fox. Kornet will likely be aging out in 3 years and raw bigs take time to develop. The 3-4 position is what the Spurs were likely trying to address with their lottery pick last year when there was a ton of smoke regarding Bryant and Cedric Coward and as long as Bryant develops well this position is likely locked down.

We know that Brian Wright loves versatility and +positional size; it would not surprise me if he was looking closely at these guys:

Cam Carr - 2/3 - if there was any concern that Vassell either couldn't keep this performance up or his contract needed to be moved down the road, this is basically THE 1:1 replacement as arguably the premier pure off-ball wing of this draft. He's long (7'2" wingspan), he shoots (career 81% FT, 40% from 3, shooting 44% on some absolutely deep 3s this season), he dunks everything (22 dunks in 10 games; for comparison Vassell had like 24 in 30 games his sophomore year), he blocks a ton of shots. There are others who are younger or shoot just as well or defend better, but nobody else comes close to combining physical tools with shooting in an off-ball wing.

Keaton Wagler - on-ball creator - if Wright thinks he needs to move Fox in a couple years when Castle's extension hits, this would be similar to Presti drafting Ajay Mitchell or Nikola Topic in recent years. He probably loves plus sized ball-handlers and wants to continue running multiple ballhandlers in any lineup after the success we've seen this season. Wagler's a 6'6" freshman and playing combo guard for a top 25 Illinois team who also shoots high volume and well from deep. He gets to the line, can run an offense, and if you squint hard enough, his crafty deliberate style inside the arc reminds me a little bit of Castle. 2.5 AST:TO as a freshman is nothing to sneeze at.

Yaxel Lendeborg - 4/5 - enough about Yaxel. He's unfortunately the only guy who's this size who can credibly masquerade as "big wing". All the other guys are either a little bit skinnier and more "3/4" (Thomas Haugh, Karim Lopez, Ament) or a little bit too much "backup center" (Ngongba, Hannes, Grunloh)
 
Also, I'm fine with OKC getting Caleb Wilson this draft. It would suck, but the spurs would probably be ok in the long run. The only guy I absolutely do not want to see on OKC outside the top 3 is Quaintance, who is going to be incredible.
 
SpursBills said:
Also, I'm fine with OKC getting Caleb Wilson this draft. It would suck, but the spurs would probably be ok in the long run. The only guy I absolutely do not want to see on OKC outside the top 3 is Quaintance, who is going to be incredible.
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This reminds me… they drafted Sorber last year. Completely forgot. I really wanted that guy if Carter or Coward didn’t fall to us.
 
OKC getting Boozer would not improve the team in the short or long term. Getting one of the actual NBA blue chip athletes, including wilson, would be problematic since they could keep the ship afloat if they run into injury or salary issue. While boozer is really just set up to be a 3rd/4th banana at best.
 
Not a fan of Yaxel and feel like he will be a ST favorite that will leave many disappointed when the Spurs pass up on him on draft night.
 
I think we'll end up with 4 or 5 guys in the same tier, where we end up drafting, that we like. It'll come down to if the fo wants a ready to play day one guy or if they like what we have and want to take a high risk/high reward guy that they hope will be ready to contribute at a cheaper price point when we move off a more expensive contract and start shuffling things around our main 3. I suspect how they view CB's progress will impact it significantly.
 
OK Computer said:
Not a fan of Yaxel and feel like he will be a ST favorite that will leave many disappointed when the Spurs pass up on him on draft night.
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What are you willing to give up for Okongwu if the Hawks decide to listen in theory? Rip up the 26 swap, 27 pick back, matching salary at minimum, but how much further are you willing to go on top of that? For the record I agree with you about him, he would be awesome as the starting 4 especially given his contract.
 
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