Post by George Gervin on Jul 3, 2023 17:34:55 GMT
Another season is in the books for the Spurs! We entered the year with a Big 3 of Luka Doncic, Paul George, and Anthony Davis that soon became a Big 2 of Luka and Bam Adebayo by January of the season. However, while this was a pair of trades recognizing the strength of the Western Conference and shifting the peak age window of our duo to 3-5 years down the line, it did not mean a fall-off for our performance. In fact, post-AD trade, we went 40-14 over the remaining 54 games for whopping 74% win percentage! We parlayed that success into a top 3 record League-wide and #2 seed in the West. While we were ultimately vanquished by the three-time running Western Conference champion Warriors, it was the D5 Spurs best season since the Tim Duncan days. We hope to leverage this momentum in perennial deep playoff runs after just completing our fourth consecutive playoff finish.
In the 2023 draft, we went in with two selections at #32 and #36 from the Thunder and Clippers respectively. This was part of the trade haul acquired from the Celtics in exchange for one of last year's selections, Christian Koloko, and cap relief. Our 1st round pick at #28 was dealt for Bruce Brown, who played a significant role in our WCSF run this season. We traded for a third selection at #54 from New Orleans deep into the draft.
With our three selections, we desired some higher floor options who could offer immediate contributions; this runs contrary to our trade in to #25 in the last draft for Ryan Rollins, a high upside guard, or our trade up to #8 in 2020 for Patrick Williams. With a top 5 player locked in and another top 20 player signed long term, we need more sure bets to fill out around that duo.
Now let's meet our draft picks!
In the 2023 draft, we went in with two selections at #32 and #36 from the Thunder and Clippers respectively. This was part of the trade haul acquired from the Celtics in exchange for one of last year's selections, Christian Koloko, and cap relief. Our 1st round pick at #28 was dealt for Bruce Brown, who played a significant role in our WCSF run this season. We traded for a third selection at #54 from New Orleans deep into the draft.
With our three selections, we desired some higher floor options who could offer immediate contributions; this runs contrary to our trade in to #25 in the last draft for Ryan Rollins, a high upside guard, or our trade up to #8 in 2020 for Patrick Williams. With a top 5 player locked in and another top 20 player signed long term, we need more sure bets to fill out around that duo.
Now let's meet our draft picks!
- #32 (via OKC) - Colby Jones (F), Xavier University. With our first selection in Round 2, we grabbed a jack of all trades forward from Xavier University, Colby Jones. Colby isn't a super flashy player; he's an athlete, but not a "world beater", and he gets by much more on his high skill level, basketball IQ, and versatility than brute force or imposing his physical will on the game. A three year starter at Xavier, Jones greatest strengths are his all around game (career averages in 86 games of 12/6/3.5 on 55/35/68 splits), defensive skill (averaged almost 2 STOCKs per game as a wing and has very positive advanced defensive metrics), and ability to play both on-ball and off-ball. For Xavier, he initiated a lot of half-court positions regularly finding his teammates while also proving effective in floater settings (almost 48%) that indicates touch not reflected in his low FT%. He does need to gain greater confidence in his catch and shoot attempts -- especially from 3 -- but given how much he already brings to the table, we are confident he is a floor raiser for us. For our Spurs, we see Colby providing valuable minutes as a bench connector; this will allow us to not lose that archetype when Bruce Brown isn't in the game, and his IQ on both ends should allow him to fit in seamlessly with the rest of our squad.
- #36 (via LAC) - Marcus Sasser (G), University of Houston. With our second selection in Round 2, we had originally lined up a trade with ATL; however, in light of CHI taking Trayce Jackson Davis one pick in front of this selection, ATL opted not to move forward with the deal and we instead stopped Marcus Sasser's slide in the draft. Sasser, a four year college starter at a very high level program in Houston under a very good coach in Kelvin Sampson, has matured tremendously from his freshman days. While on the shorter end for a guard in today's game at a generous 6'2", Sasser makes up for it in supreme length (+6 wingspan), solid frame (stout 195 LBs for a smaller guard), and elite skills as Point-of-Attack defender and shooter. Across four years at Houston, Sasser drilled 37% of 748 3 Point Attempts; his last three years he averaged high volume (7+ per game) at a 39% clip. He did it from multiple platforms successfully -- 95th percentile on catch and shoot 3s (almost 46% in those instances), 87th percentile in isolation 3s, and then to boot he was in the 86th percentile for at the basket finishing amongst college guards. On defense, he was the leader of Houston's 2nd ranked in the nation defense as their primary on-ball defender and finished top 5 in college basketball (and was one of two non-bigs with Jaime Jacquez being the other in that echelon) in Win Shares, Win Shares per 40, and Box Plus/Minus impact. For our Spurs, we expect him to provide another very good guard defender along with Alex Caruso and TJ McConnell as well as injury insurance should Ryan Rollins health continue to be an issue. His shooting prowess should help open things up for not only our stars, but also our other role players given his track record and ability to do so off movement.
- #54 (via NOP) - Jalen Wilson (F), University of Kansas. With our final selection in Round 2, we dealt a future 2nd round pick from the Celtics to the Pelicans to score an upperclassman wing who had been sliding, Jalen Wilson. Wilson was the primary option for a Kansas team that won a title in his Junior year when he was a supporting piece. In his Senior year, he was the primary option, boosting his stat line up to over 20 PPG while adding over 8 RPG from the wing. Wilson's best attributes are his multi-faceted skillset, with the ability to play on-ball and off-ball, high basketball IQ (always makes the right plays), while having an NBA ready frame. Wilson should be able to walk in Day 1 and handle the physical demands of playing on the wings, and we expect him to bring a great mindset on the court as a "roll up your sleeves" type while being a future leader in the locker-room. Wilson should be able to provide immediate wing depth behind Bojan, Brown, and Aldama while hopefully maturing into a Swiss Army knife piece for us to leverage in specific matchups.