Gay to become free agent again
Forward will decline option, having spent one season with San Antonio.
The Spurs own the 18th pick in the June 21 NBA draft, their highest original position since selecting Tim Duncan first overall in 1997. In 2011, they traded for the 15th pick in order to nab Kawhi Leonard. These are profiles of prospects the Spurs might consider at No. 18:
Miles Bridges
The Spurs have never been a team wowed by pure athleticism. They are a team built to win championships, not dunk contests.
“Guys who are slow and can’t jump, they fit pretty good in San Antonio,” general manager R.C. Buford memorably said after the team spent its first-round pick on Kyle “SloMo” Anderson in 2014.
In that sense, Michigan State sophomore Miles Bridges isn’t the prototypical Spurs draft prospect.
Bridges is not slow. And he can jump out of any gym on the planet.
Listed at 6-foot-6, Bridges is one of the most explosive leapers in this year’s draft class, willing to dunk almost anything he can. In two seasons with the Spartans, Bridges averaged 17 points and 7.6 rebounds.
If highlight-reel plays were all that was in Bridges’ repertoire, he probably wouldn’t be on the Spurs’ radar.
He also possesses good size,
a high motor and outsized competitiveness, attributes the Spurs — and most other teams — will covet.
The biggest knock on Bridges in the pre-draft process is some murkiness surrounding his position.
He is undersized for an
NBA power forward — his college position — but hasn’t yet consistently flashed the shooting and ball-handling skills needed to space the floor as an NBA wing. He will need to improve in those areas to justify a mid-first round pick.
In today’s “position-less” NBA era, Bridges’ status as a “tweener” is less of a drawback.
The Spurs were one of a handful of teams to meet with Bridges. Most mock drafts have Bridges going in the late lottery, meaning he would have to slip a bit in order to reach the Spurs.
Omari Spellman
When the average fan thinks of the Golden State Warriors, a bevy of All-Star scorers come to mind.
The Warriors are Stephen Curry’s wizardry from all ranges, Kevin Durant’s one-ofa-kind scoring skill set, Klay Thompson’s penchant for occasionally going nuclear.
The underrated driving force behind the Warriors’ rise to perennial title favorite, however, has been fourth All-Star Draymond Green.
Green’s versatility, his ability to guard any player one through five, allowed Golden State to play the kind of suffocating, switching defense that has provided the backbone to its otherworldly offense.
Villanova’s Omari Spellman might not be the next Draymond Green. But he would like to be.
That’s the player Spellman told scouts at this month’s NBA draft combine he would most like to emulate.
At 6-foot-9, Spellman is a bit taller than Green, but possesses many of the same valuable defensive skills.
With Spellman on the floor last season, Villanova 96.7 points per 100 possessions. Though the comparison is a bit apples-and-oranges, that team defensive rating would have led the NBA by a country mile.
The counting numbers the 21-year-old Spellman amassed in his lone college season don’t jump off the page: 10.9 points, 1.5 blocks and eight rebounds per game.
Yet he was the driving force behind Villanova’s run to a second national championship in three seasons last spring.
Spellman did shoot 43 percent from 3-point range, an ability that will play well for a big man in the modern NBA.
Teams have expressed late first-round interest in Spellman, including the Spurs. He has a draft workout scheduled with them this weekend. Whichever team lands Spellman will likely be impressed by his work ethic.
Last fall, he arrived at Villanova as a 290-pounder with 24percent body fat, his physique literally fueled by gummy bears.
By January, he was down to 245 pounds with 10 percent body fat, in prime shape to power Villanova’s Final Four run.
Many NBA mock drafts have Spellman landing in the early 20s, so he is likely to be on the board when the Spurs select at No. 18. If the Spurs tab the slimmed-down Spellman, they should find use for him on both ends of the court.
Khyri Thomas
Increasingly in today’s NBA, players have to be able to play both ends of the floor.
Shooting is great. Lockdown defense is swell. But if a player — especially a role player — can’t help in both areas, it becomes difficult to get that player on the court.
A proven ability to play at both ends is what makes Creighton guard Khyri Thomas an intriguing option for the Spurs at No. 18.
The 6-foot-3 Thomas shot 40 percent from 3-point range as a junior last season for the Bluejays. His effective fieldgoal percentage of 62.9 percent led the Big East conference. What sets Thomas apart, however, is his defensive chops. With a wingspan measuring 6-10½, Thomas has the size and willingness to guard any of the backcourt positions. He is a physical defender with a nose for bodying up bigger guards and perimeter players.
Thomas is a two-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year.
Most mock drafts have Thomas going later than No. 18, so there is a good chance he will still be on the clock when the Spurs are drafting. He certainly fits the San Antonio mold.
Plugged into the Spurs’ system, it isn’t difficult to picture Thomas as a lite version of two-way standouts Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.
Troy Brown Jr.
By most measurements,
Troy Brown had a lone college season at Oregon that screams “solid, but not spectacular.”
He averaged 11.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists — nice enough numbers for a freshman but none that point to a player ready to make a mark in the NBA this fall.
It has been Brown’s performances, individual team workouts and interviews that have him shooting up mock draft boards of late.
At 6-7, with a 6-10 wingspan, Brown has the size necessary to play both wing positions at the next level — and most importantly, defend both wing positions at the next level.
Brown’s lack of explosion and athleticism keeps him off of most SportsCenter highlight reels, but his ability to do a little bit of everything has many NBA teams intrigued. In fact, Brown — who has reportedly worked out for the Spurs — might be the most versatile player in this year’s draft field.
He grew up as point guard, which affords him plus ballhandling and playmaking skills for a player of his position. Scouts rave about
Brown’s innate feel for the game.
This part is not surprising. The son of a former college basketball standout — his father, Troy Sr, played at Texas A&M-Kingsville — Brown was raised on the game.
Brown also doesn’t lack for confidence. Asked by the Denver media about his game following a draft workout there, Brown name-dropped a likely Rookie of the Year and former NBA Finals MVP.
The minus that limits Brown’s draft stock is a lack of shooting touch. He was an inconsistent scorer at Oregon, and shot only 29 percent from 3-point distance. He’ll need to improve that part of his game to become a rotation piece at the NBA level.
At 18, however, Brown is among the youngest players in the 2018 draft. He clearly has room to improve.
Elie Okobo
It wouldn’t be a Spurs draft profile series without a look at a prospect from overseas. The most likely to be available at No. 18 is French guard Elie Okobo.
Okobo blossomed in the French junior league last season, averaging 13.1 points Pau Orthez. Like another French point guard familiar to Spurs fans, Okobo has learned to use his quickness and gear-shifiting ability to get to the rim and scramble opposing defenses.
A natural lefty, Okobo has also been proficient with his jump shot. He already seems to boast NBA range, even off the dribble.
With a 6-foot-8 wingspan, Okobo has the physical tools to become a lockdown defender of point guards.
The 6-foot-3 Okobo burst onto the international scene two years ago at the European Under-20 championships, where he averaged better than 20 points for the French squad as the third-leading scorer in the tournament.
The Spurs already have a point guard of the future in Dejounte Murray, but Okobo projects as a combo guard who can play both backcourt positions.
Still, teams will want to see Okobo develop his point guard skills in order to reach his full NBA potential.