Pacers made the blueprint — but only Spurs have Wembanyama to unleash it

Everything will work.
Indiana Pacers v San Antonio Spurs
Indiana Pacers v San Antonio Spurs | Ronald Cortes/GettyImages

We're less than a week from the Spurs drafting Dylan Harper and being that much closer to their own version of the Pacers style that's led them to an NBA Finals. When critics claim the incoming number two overall pick won't work with De'Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle, it makes me wonder if they watched what's happened throughout the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.

Indiana's starting lineup is Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, Pascal Siakam, and Myles Turner. Three of those players are 6'6" and under. They make up for their lack of size by playing physically and pushing the pace. That's something everyone should easily be able to see developing in the 210 but they'd have more speed, power, and, of course, Victor Wembanyama, who changes everything.

The Spurs will play through Wembanyama no matter who's in the game

Vic is an unselfish player, sometimes to a fault, but he still has one of the highest usage rates in the league. That's not going to change when Harper joins the ranks. It gives San Antonio another playmaker who can reliably feed the 7'4" matchup nightmare.

In Wemby's rookie season, his teammates struggled to get him the ball consistently. They either threw bad passes or wouldn't throw the ball at all. Two years later, he's going to have his pick of several talented, versatile combo guards who can deliver the ball with Amazon-like reliability. I don't know about you, but I've never not received a package from the e-commerce giant.

The fears about shooting are only rational if you believe that a couple of players who haven't reached 21 years old have zero ability to improve. Too many people speak from a place of fear. "What if it doesn't work out?" Should be replaced by, "This will be amazing if it works out."

Hope isn't usually a strategy in life, but drafting players isn't an exact science. If it were, the Wizards and Hornets would have a better track record. So, you need to take the best player possible and, yes, you do need to hope that they work on their weaknesses to reach their potential.

Harper and Castle's peak potential isn't capped at Shawn Livingston. Both players can improve their three-point efficiency, even if they don't have picture-perfect jump shots. Tyrese Haliburton is proof of that.

The proof is in the pudding, as they say. You can put three players that size on the floor at the same time and have immense success. But Victor Wembanyama is much better than Myles Turner, giving San Antonio an unstoppable element they'll be able to rely on. Indiana just doesn't have that.

The Spurs can take what the Pacers have done with their offense (which 100% has elements of The Beautiful Game in it) and they can not only master it but reinvent it. Extraterrestrial tools help you do that.