Player The restricted-age video store section of Dylan Harper

[wEmBoY]

Harper has a ceiling of a franchise player. It is BS spurs using him as bench player lmao. He cant show his full potential playing off bench. Some spurs fans think spurs made a mistake by picking harper. They should’ve pick Kon over harper. Fit wise.

 

[Ice009]

After learning about Harper (didn't follow any of the top 4 picks apart from Cooper Flagg as I didn't think the Spurs would get in the top 4 - was hoping, but didn't think it'd happen), there is no way I would have taken Kon over him. The only player I would have taken over him is Cooper. I really hope both Dylan and Cooper can both become equally great players. They both have the talent for it.

 

[ginobilized]

Or Fox comes off the bench tbh

I like the idea, but, that would make him the highest paid bench player in NBA history as his back-loaded contract takes effect. He'd surpass Ben Simmons $40 million bench salary as his salary balloons from $49-$61 million over the next 3 years. Will be something to watch, no doubt.

 

[Arcadian]

Harper has a ceiling of a franchise player. It is BS spurs using him as bench player lmao. He cant show his full potential playing off bench. Some spurs fans think spurs nade a mistake by picking harper. They should’ve pick Kon over harper. Fit wise.

How would you fit him in the starting lineup? You can't have 3 point guards all starting, lol. He plays on a deep team with lots of playmakers. He's still a key role player, and his role will continue to grow.

 

[Arcadian]

With Harper, this will be the third consecutive season with a 1st team All-Rookie on the same team. Has that ever happened before?

 

[ambchang]

My thoughts to have the king Ghidorah lineup is that at least one of them can turn out to be an above average pull up three shooter. Nothing crazy, like 1 pull up attempt a game, shooting over 32% would suffice. Right now Harper is at 15.4% on 0.6 attempts, Castle 17%/0.7 and Fox 28%/2.6.

Harper and Castle have improved immensely on catch and shoot over the year, shooting 40.2% on 2 attempts and 36.8% on 2.9 attempts, respectively, so I can see them eventually improving on catch and shoots.

With 1 of them, and ideally 2 or even all 3, being pull up threats, the Spurs can have that threat manage the offence while not having the defence sag off him, further opening up the lane. While Harper and Castle are both better catch and shooters now, reality is that if there are no pull up threats (Fox is our main threat there now, he is not horrible but not good either), the penetration lanes will still be tight, and even if we have 1, it takes away our biggest advantage, which is having more than 1 offensive creator.

I still see it as entirely possible given our players. Fox is learning to play off ball for the first time in his life and doing a decent job at it. Same for Harper.

 

[Exstatic]

How would you fit him in the starting lineup? You can't have 3 point guards all starting, lol. He plays on a deep team with lots of playmakers. He's still a key role player, and his role will continue to grow.

You’re still thinking in terms of 5 positions instead of none. We have three high level ball handlers, two of which are oversized to match up with teams bigger guards and wings.

 

[picnroll]

Right now we have Vassel, Fox and Castle starting. Castle, if he can develop a good 3 point shot, is better equipef to play the role of Vassel. Move Harper to starting and Vassel to 6th man, eventually don’t resign Fox unless he takes a big pay cut.

 

[SpursBills]

Right now we have Vassel, Fox and Castle starting. Castle, if he can develop a good 3 point shot, is better equipef to play the role of Vassel. Move Harper to starting and Vassel to 6th man, eventually don’t resign Fox unless he takes a big pay cut.

I would argue that the correct move is to move Fox to the bench in a year or 2 as he has better synergy with Kornet and allows you to fully leverage the size of Harper and castle by letting them start together. I think a Harper-Fox- castle lineup is less than the sum of its parts because of its lack of shooting dynamism and leaves you without a playmaker to run the bench

 

[picnroll]

I would argue that the correct move is to move Fox to the bench in a year or 2 as he has better synergy with Kornet and allows you to fully leverage the size of Harper and castle by letting them start together. I think a Harper-Fox- castle lineup is less than the sum of its parts because of its lack of shooting dynamism and leaves you without a playmaker to run the bench

l’m assuming Castle and Harper can maintain or even improve on the 3 pt shooting percentage they’ve shown since Jan. Hopefully on a higher volume.

 

[spurraider21]

l’m assuming Castle and Harper can maintain or even improve on the 3 pt shooting percentage they’ve shown since Jan. Hopefully on a higher volume.

from the eye test they've drastically cut down on the amount of off-the-dribble 3's

harper has been playing off-ball a ton, often times standing in the corner during the "horns" sets so it feels like his average 3PA is pretty high quality. castle does tend to take more difficult ones than harper, either by standing about a foot behind the line or over soft contests, but still... not many off the dribble

castle has been at 37% for all of 2026, which is a great number for him, with his season average at 33%. thats a sustained period of good shooting for him. yes, like harper, he's been particularly hot since march, but in january/february he was shooting at 33% which is not an awful number for him either.

harper has really just been lights out since march, shooting an absurd 56% from 3 since then. but prior to march, he had been at 25.4% for the season

they both have plenty of room to grow as shooters, but this much improvement this early is very promising

 

[DTW]

I would argue that the correct move is to move Fox to the bench in a year or 2 as he has better synergy with Kornet and allows you to fully leverage the size of Harper and castle by letting them start together. I think a Harper-Fox- castle lineup is less than the sum of its parts because of its lack of shooting dynamism and leaves you without a playmaker to run the bench

I don't see the Spurs so much as considering that, let alone approaching Fox with it or him being amendable to it.

Feels like too much gymnastics when there's a much more obvious, simple solution staring them in the face.

 

[Arcadian]

You’re still thinking in terms of 5 positions instead of none. We have three high level ball handlers, two of which are oversized to match up with teams bigger guards and wings.

And you're still thinking in terms of "the 5 best players should be the starters." It's good to have a big weapon coming off the bench. If someone in your second unit is better than everyone on the other team's second unit, like Manu used to be, that's a big advantage.

But also, he's a rookie. It's okay if he comes off the bench for a year or two. His time will come.

 

[wEmBoY]

How would you fit him in the starting lineup? You can't have 3 point guards all starting, lol. He plays on a deep team with lots of playmakers. He's still a key role player, and his role will continue to grow.

Send fox or castle to the bench. Thats the only solution for now if harper would start.

 

[scott]

Or Fox comes off the bench tbh

I think 6th man Fox would eventually be a nice role for him... but IMO you just can't have 25% of the cap coming off the bench, even if it's still at 30mpg... but maybe I'm just thinking too traditionally/"old fashioned" in that sense. I do agree that Harper is going to be too good to be coming off the bench eventually and will become a max player himself at some point.

I do see people talk about Fox taking a pay cut... but in the NBA contracts cannot be renegotiated downward to help a team's cap... they can only be renegotiated upwards.

I still there there is a chance that Castle can be a playmaking 3 "point forward" that let's all 3 play together, but when they've shared the court so far it has not been good. I think it relies on one of them becoming a good pull up 3 point shooter as @ambchang stated. I also think the best chance of the 3 of them working together relies on something next to Wemby that we don't currently have, which is another versatile big so you can go 3+2 rather than 3+1+1 (using my Guard/Wing/Big Spurs position classification). Kornet isn't the right guy for that... not to beat a dead horse but Maxime would have been a better fit for that. Maybe Mara?

 

[OK Computer]

I think 6th man Fox would eventually be a nice role for him... but IMO you just can't have 25% of the cap coming off the bench, even if it's still at 30mpg... but maybe I'm just thinking too traditionally/"old fashioned" in that sense. I do agree that Harper is going to be too good to be coming off the bench eventually and will become a max player himself at some point.

I do see people talk about Fox taking a pay cut... but in the NBA contracts cannot be renegotiated downward to help a team's cap... they can only be renegotiated upwards.

I still there there is a chance that Castle can be a playmaking 3 "point forward" that let's all 3 play together, but when they've shared the court so far it has not been good. I think it relies on one of them becoming a good pull up 3 point shooter as @ambchang stated. I also think the best chance of the 3 of them working together relies on something next to Wemby that we don't currently have, which is another versatile big so you can go 3+2 rather than 3+1+1 (using my Guard/Wing/Big Spurs position classification). Kornet isn't the right guy for that... not to beat a dead horse but Maxime would have been a better fit for that. Maybe Mara?

Why renegotiate and not just wait for his contract to end for him to take a paycut?

 

[Mugen]

Trading Fox wont be an issue in a few years when he's got 2 rings, two fat contract years left, and a front office that will work with him on where he wants to go tbh.

 

[scott]

Why renegotiate and not just wait for his contract to end for him to take a paycut?

I posted an update in the Future Cap thread. The last two years of Fox's deal are going to be pretty rough with us well above the second apron. I have us $11MM over the second apron with only 10 guys in 28-29 and $7MM over with only 7 guys in 29-30.

Things are going to get even stickier if Castle qualifies for a Rookie Super Max.

 

[Exstatic]

And you're still thinking in terms of "the 5 best players should be the starters." It's good to have a big weapon coming off the bench. If someone in your second unit is better than everyone on the other team's second unit, like Manu used to be, that's a big advantage.

But also, he's a rookie. It's okay if he comes off the bench for a year or two. His time will come.

There were people talking about 4 years.

He was OK doing it as a rookie, but I’m not sure he’ll be as OK next year.

 

[OK Computer]

I posted an update in the Future Cap thread. The last two years of Fox's deal are going to be pretty rough with us well above the second apron. I have us $11MM over the second apron with only 10 guys in 28-29 and $7MM over with only 7 guys in 29-30.

Things are going to get even stickier if Castle qualifies for a Rookie Super Max.

Welp, I lean realist over idealist. If Fox can’t stay because of the financial constraints, then so be it. It sucks because I see this team achieving 70 wins next year, and to lose Fox after that will be a huge blow.

 

[scott]

Welp, I lean realist over idealist. If Fox can’t stay because of the financial constraints, then so be it. It sucks because I see this team achieving 70 wins next year, and to lose Fox after that will be a huge blow.

I think there are a couple of ways the Spurs could maneuver... but eventually something will have to give with him or Devin, IMO.

 

[spurraider21]

I think there are a couple of ways the Spurs could maneuver... but eventually something will have to give with him or Devin, IMO.

I think the odd man out is pretty clearly Fox given that we already have 2 guards in place that appear to be part of the core big 3 for the foreseeable future. castle is already better than Fox (wild tbh), and within 2 years, its reasonable to think Harper will be given how good he already is. and then you factor in the absurd amount of money Fox will be making... its the easy decision.

Fox has already been forced to take a step back this year given how good Castle has been, and he will continue taking steps back as Castle gets even better and as harper comes along. paying 55+ mil to a guy with a continuously declining role is simply bad business.

meanwhile vassell has legitimately turned the corner and has finally reinvented himself as a good role player. while both fox and vassell are arguably overpaid for their respective roles, Vassell's overpay is far less egregious

 

[scott]

I think the odd man out is pretty clearly Fox given that we already have 2 guards in place that appear to be part of the core big 3 for the foreseeable future. castle is already better than Fox (wild tbh), and within 2 years, its reasonable to think Harper will be given how good he already is. and then you factor in the absurd amount of money Fox will be making... its the easy decision.

Fox has already been forced to take a step back this year given how good Castle has been, and he will continue taking steps back as Castle gets even better and as harper comes along. paying 55+ mil to a guy with a continuously declining role is simply bad business.

meanwhile vassell has legitimately turned the corner and has finally reinvented himself as a good role player. while both fox and vassell are arguably overpaid for their respective roles, Vassell's overpay is far less egregious

I agree. I think it is safe to say that if the Spurs had a crystal ball and could have foreseen the emergence of Castle and lucking into Harper (and more so Harper in this case), they don't make the Fox trade. I wouldn't have either, even as a big Fox fan.

 

[OK Computer]

I think the odd man out is pretty clearly Fox given that we already have 2 guards in place that appear to be part of the core big 3 for the foreseeable future. castle is already better than Fox (wild tbh), and within 2 years, its reasonable to think Harper will be given how good he already is. and then you factor in the absurd amount of money Fox will be making... its the easy decision.

Fox has already been forced to take a step back this year given how good Castle has been, and he will continue taking steps back as Castle gets even better and as harper comes along. paying 55+ mil to a guy with a continuously declining role is simply bad business.

meanwhile vassell has legitimately turned the corner and has finally reinvented himself as a good role player. while both fox and vassell are arguably overpaid for their respective roles, Vassell's overpay is far less egregious

It’s difficult to see Harper being better than Fox as a valid point because when Fox leaves, there will be a huge hole at third PG. The Spurs are losing a big advantage without someone as good as Fox to be the third guard.

 

[spurraider21]

It’s difficult to see Harper being better than Fox as a valid point because when Fox leaves, there will be a huge hole at third PG. The Spurs are losing a big advantage without someone as good as Fox to be the third guard.

how many teams have relevant 3rd PGs?