With no sure things, the NBA draft possibilities are endless for the Spurs this time
NEW YORK — The hotel was a little fancier this time. Past the courtyard at the entrance, marble statues and gold-framed mirrors flanked a grand staircase. In the ballroom where reporters awaited the top pick in the NBA draft, crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling.
But unlike a year ago, when many of those same reporters filled a different, larger ballroom a few blocks away, there was no single focal point on Tuesday afternoon. Instead of one giant platform for one impossibly tall kid, there were nine smaller tables for three shifts of nine shorter prospects. Instead of dozens of cameras pointing up at one can’t-miss, slam-dunk superstar, the lenses aimed everywhere, almost randomly. Again, there was a French teenager. This time there were three, in fact. But none had Victor Wembanyama’s physical gifts, and none had his charm, and none had anything resembling what he had a year ago. Specifically, certainty. “Everything can happen,” said Zaccharie Risacher, the talented wing from France who might be taken No. 1 by Atlanta in Wednesday’s NBA draft, or who might end up in San Antonio, or who might get caught between his New York City hotel and the moon. “You could be drafted and traded a couple of minutes later. It’s kind of crazy how things work. I don’t have any guesses.” Heading into the day of the most wide-open draft in recent memory, guesses are all anybody has. That’s especially true of Wembanyama’s Spurs, who entered this offseason with the desire and the urgency to improve, and with no shortage of options to accomplish that. Could they shake the whole draft up and control the evening the way they did a year ago? That’s still a possibility. If the Hawks are looking to trade the top pick, few teams can offer them the type of capital that might be offered by the Spurs, who have at least pondered the idea of pairing Risacher with his countryman. Could they do the exact opposite and trade down, perhaps even more than once? In a draft with no clear consensus on the top pick, or on the Top 5, or on the Top 10, that might make a whole lot of sense. After all, if another team really wants Connecticut’s Donovan Clingan at No. 4, and you still can get Stephon Castle a little lower, why not facilitate a deal to make that happen? Why reach for Kentucky’s Rob Dillingham or Providence’s Devin Carter at No. 8 if you can trade down and get him at No. 11, while picking up assets in the process? The Spurs surely will consider moves like that, maybe as late as when they’re on the clock Wednesday night. The safest bet, of course, is that they’ll just make both of their picks, and hope they did a better job scouting the two dozen-plus players who made their way through that fancy hotel ballroom on Tuesday afternoon. But unlike a year ago, when Wembanyama was able to talk confidently about his future with the Spurs more than 24 hours before his name was called, not a single prospect this time was ready to say anything definitive about their destinations. “Honestly, I don’t know where I’m going at all,” Dillingham said. “It will be a complete surprise.” Like others in the room Tuesday, the Kentucky guard knows the Spurs are a possibility. Dillingham, though, was the most enthusiastic about it. He made visits to lots of NBA teams over the past month, but he said the only head coach he had a one-on-one conversation with was Gregg Popovich. “From afar, coach looks crazy,” Dillingham said. “But I love coach. He’s more like a soft-spoken dude.” Clearly, though, the real selling-point for the Spurs among this year’s class isn’t their five-time champion coach — it’s their second-year center. Clingan, the 7-foot-2 UConn big man, said it would be “crazy” to imagine San Antonio’s defense with the two of them patrolling the paint together. Carter, the Providence guard, said he’s relished the idea of throwing lobs to Wembanyama. And Castle, the UConn combo guard who’s expressed a desire to play the point, can see why it might be beneficial to learn those ropes alongside last year’s No. 1 pick. “He attracts a lot of attention,” Castle said of Wembanyama. “The other four guys on the court, the spacing he creates for them makes it a lot easier.” Risacher is one potential pick who already knows that from experience. When he was 16 and Wembanyama was 17, they were part of the same ASVEL program in France. During Risacher’s first pro practice, Wembanyama was there. Since then? “Everything that he accomplished … it’s inspired me and inspired a lot of people,” Risacher said. And in a fancy room with crystal chandeliers and nine small tables? Risacher and his fellow prospects had no choice. Nobody was a sure thing. But they could embrace the uncertainty. And the idea that everything could happen.
NBA Hawks Uconn ASVEL Kentucky Zaccharie Risacher Rob Dillingham Devin Carter Donovan Clingan Stephon Castle Gregg Popovich NEW YORK San Antonio France Dillingham Providence French Atlanta Top 10 Kentucky Connecticut Victor Wembanyama Castle
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