The Spurs got lucky in the lottery and will pick fourth and eighth, as the Raptors first-rounder they acquired in the Jakob Poeltl trade has conveyed. They will get a big infusion of young talent from a draft class that is not heralded as a great one but has intriguing prospects.
Having two picks, though, could really change how the Spurs approach this offseason. They have already said they will take things slowly but are now much better suited to having a quiet summer than they would have with just one pick.
If we assume the Spurs will use both picks, as the fans want them to, those selections will eat into their cap space. If they keep both, they will likely have around $21.4 million in cap space, assuming they waive everyone on a non-guaranteed contract, including Julian Champagnie, and renounce all their free agents. The rookie scale deal for the eighth pick is $6.3 million, so without the Raptors pick, San Antonio would have had around $27.7 million in cap space. If they had also stayed at fifth instead of jumping to fourth they would have had another $600,000 at their disposal. San Antonio could have had over $28 million in cap space if things had gone differently in the lottery. Seven extra million might not seem like much, but every penny would count if the Spurs were hoping to be active in free agency./cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70355910/1237440206.0.jpg)
Beyond just taking up more cap space, using both picks means using two roster spaces. San Antonio already has 10 players under contract for next season, and with the two rookies, they would be at 12 players. Six players — Victor Wembanyama, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sochan, Tre Jones and Zach Collins — are already penciled into the rotation. Assuming the two lottery picks get playing time right away, that’s eight rotation spots taken, and that’s not even counting Blake Wesley, Malaki Branham and Champagnie, much less Sidy Cissoko. Not only would the Spurs’ roster be almost full, but also the rotation would be hard to crack for any new addition. Again, trades could change how the roster and the rotation look, but they would have been crowded adding just one rookie expected to get minutes, never mind two.
