Fans of the San Antonio Spurs were stoked to see what prospects their favorite ball club’s front office was going to take with a pair of picks in the lottery of the 2024 NBA draft. But when push came to shove on draft night, the Spurs only used one of the two to bring on a rookie. They traded their No. 8 overall pick of the draft for future assets after picking up University of Connecticut combo guard Stephon Castle with the No. 4 overall pick.
Will San Antonio end up regretting trading away their second lottery pick of the 2024 draft? If you ask Bleacher Report league analyst Greg Swartz, there is a very good chance that they will.
“Teams only get so many chances to build around a generational prospect, which is why punting on the No. 8 overall pick in the draft a year after selecting Victor Wembanyama was the wrong thing to do for the … Spurs,” writes Swartz.
“Franchises should be trying to get as many bites at the apple as they possibly can, knowing that not all their young pieces are eventually going to fit.”
Now that the San Antonio Spurs have shut down Stephon Castle, what are our assessments of summer league? https://t.co/OKCA1xgGDJ pic.twitter.com/9M2tn00Sge
— SpursWire (@Spurs_Wire) July 19, 2024
“There were some really interesting prospects the Spurs could have taken at No. 8 to pair with Wembaynama,” he adds, pointing to prospects like Matas Buzelis, or simply hanging onto Kentucky point guard Rob Dillingham.
“The Spurs are going to get really good, really fast, meaning these lottery pick opportunities will slowly fade away,” he suggests. “San Antonio overthought this and should have taken the best prospect on its board instead.”
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