Constructing a Spurs “dream team” if they nailed every NBA Draft

The upcoming NBA Draft will give the San Antonio Spurs a chance to add to their already impressive draft resume. With the number one pick, it is all but guaranteed that they will select Victor Wembanyama first, perhaps the biggest no-brainer selection in draft history. However, they also have two other picks in which to potentially strike gold, and more often than not, the Spurs have found great players later in the draft.

Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Dejounte Murray, Derrick White, and Keldon Johnson are all success stories with only a few misses in recent years. Some of those draft misses were more egregious than others, though none ultimately negatively affected the team in the long run. Still, it's interesting to see how the team would have looked had they not missed on several of their draft picks.

Better yet, let's take a look at each draft miss and see who the Spurs should have selected instead in an attempt to construct the best roster possible. Let's start with the 2011 NBA Draft and see how San Antonio could have altered their trajectory.

2011: Jimmy Butler over Cory Joseph with the 29th pick

The 2011 NBA Draft is often remembered as one of the best drafts ever, and it most certainly is. But it is remembered among Spurs fans for the Kawhi Leonard trade, which helped revitalize a team with a rapidly closing title window. However, it's easy to forget that the Spurs took Cory Joseph with their own pick, who went on to have a solid career.

Even then, he didn't play all that much of a role on the team until his fourth and final year before leaving for Toronto. As the 29th pick, Joseph exceeded expectations, but Jimmy Butler, who was taken 30th overall, far exceeded them.

The Spurs drafted Joseph because of a need at point guard, with Tony Parker entering his 30s at the time. But had they not, they could have taken Butler, who is in the middle of a historic playoff run with the Miami Heat.

Just imagine what Butler and Leonard would have looked like playing together, though that likely would have kept both from becoming the players that they are today. It also would have kept Danny Green from breaking out, which came as a byproduct of trading away George Hill. Still, this is all about dream scenarios, so we'll overlook that and focus on what could have been.

2011: Isaiah Thomas over Adam Hanga with the 59th pick

While selecting both Leonard and Butler would've made for a great draft, the Spurs also had a second-round pick that year that could have been better used. With the 59th pick in the draft, the Spurs selected Adam Hanga, an athletic wing known for his defensive ability. Unfortunately, Hanga never ended up joining the team, while Isaiah Thomas, who was taken last in the draft, managed to carve out quite a career for himself.

The last pick is nicknamed "Mr. Irrelevant" for a reason, since few, if any, ever even make the NBA. Of course, Thomas did. He made two all-star teams, including during the 2016–17 season, in which he averaged 29 points a game and finished 5th in MVP voting. That would obviously have made him a better choice for the Spurs, even though he has largely been a journeyman in the six years since a serious hip injury.

Ironically, the second half of his career was similar to that of most second-round picks. Still, Thomas' peak is better than most players', making him an ideal inclusion on this hypothetical Spurs dream team, joining two yet-to-be-mentioned players at point guard.

2013: Robert Covington over Livio Jean-Charles with the 28th pick

The 2013 NBA Draft ranks as one of the worst drafts of the last 10 years, so it's hard to blame the Spurs for not finding a keeper when most other teams didn't either. With the 28th pick, they selected Livio Jean-Charles, a then-athletic 19-year-old 6'9 forward with a massive arm span.

He made for an intriguing prospect who could have eventually played alongside players such as Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard and helped an already terrific defense get even better. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL only a few days after he was drafted.

That stunted his development, and he never improved enough to make the Spurs. That was bad luck on both his and the team's part, but there weren't many players taken behind him that had the Spurs kicking themselves. In fact, the best player after Jean-Charles went undrafted.

Robert Covington was signed by the Houston Rockets and quickly carved out an NBA role as a three-and-d player. 10 seasons later, Covington is still playing in the NBA, and had the Spurs taken him, they would have gotten one of the better wing defenders of the 2010s.

2014: Nikola Jokic over Kyle Anderson with the 29th pick

The 2014 NBA Draft ended up being a bit of a disappointment given the top of the draft, so the Spurs were lucky to get Kyle Anderson. That said, they ended up missing out on the prize of the draft in Nikola Jokic. Jokic was taken 11 spots below Anderson and went on to become a two-time (should've been three-time) MVP. Obviously, no one at the time knew that Jokic would turn into arguably the best player in the NBA.

But still, how insane would it have been for the defending champion Spurs to end up with him? It would have potentially changed the years that followed, with the Spurs still signing LaMarcus Aldridge the following summer, but it would have prevented them from replacing Tim Duncan with Pau Gasol. That might have been enough to keep Kawhi Leonard happy, which would have stopped the team from trading for DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl, and the pick that became Keldon Johnson.

That trade has ultimately proven to be the gift that keeps on giving, and the Spurs wouldn't have been in position to land the number one pick this year, but they probably wouldn't have to rebuild at all either. Sorry Slow-mo, if the team had nailed every NBA Draft, then they would have ended up with Jokic.

2015: Kevon Looney over Nikola Milutinov with the 26th pick

I've been on record saying that the Spurs' decision to select center Nikola Milutinov 26th in 2015 was their worst draft decision. It probably still is, especially with the players that were still on the board, including Golden State Warriors center Kevon Looney. Looney had a slow start to his career but has really come into his own over the last couple of seasons, especially in this year's playoffs. Looney showed why he is one of the best offensive rebounders by being a terror on the glass, averaging 4.7 offensive rebounds per game and 13.2 overall in just 25 minutes per game.

Getting a starter with a late first-round pick is something the Spurs are known for, but instead of nabbing Looney, they chose to draft and stash Milutinov, who ultimately never played a single game with the team or in the NBA. Swap Milutinov out for Looney, and the Spurs would have gotten a lot more out of the 26th pick.

Instead, the Spurs relied on veteran players to fill the role of center until Jakob Poeltl eventually became a starter. Now, they have a chance to fill the role for at least a decade with Wembanyama, though it would have been nice to have actually used that 2015 pick to get a player who could contribute.

2018: Jalen Brunson over Lonnie Walker IV with the 18th pick

With the Spurs drafting Murray and White in 2016 and 2017, we'll skip over them considering that they were both great picks. However, Lonnie Walker, at 18, perhaps wasn't. Walker never quite put it together in San Antonio, despite his physical tools and skills. To his credit, he went on to become a decent NBA player, but he should have been better.

Additionally, there were several good players taken after him, including Jalen Brunson, who was taken 33rd overall in the 2018 NBA draft. Brunson started his career in Dallas, where he quickly exceeded expectations while playing alongside superstar Luka Doncic. After four seasons, he left in free agency and signed with the New York Knicks, where he was a borderline all-star after averaging 24 points and 6.2 assists per game.

With surprisingly few point guard options in this re-draft, Brunson is a no-brainer inclusion on this hypothetical Spurs team. In this scenario, Brunson would play behind Murray in the second unit but could close games for the team, giving the Spurs a wealth of clutch playmakers. Imagine a closing lineup consisting of Brunson, Murray, Butler, Leonard, and Jokic, Had the Spurs taken him instead of Walker, they would have definitely gotten more out of the 18th pick that year, but they have recovered nicely since then.

2019: Lu Dort over Quinndary Weatherspoon with the 49th pick

Staying consistent with the previously mentioned dream scenarios, the Spurs would probably be picking late in the first and second rounds. That means that they would only have the 30th and 60th picks instead of 19, 30, and 49. That wouldn't have prevented them from selecting Johnson with the last pick in the first round, and it would have saved them from taking Luka Samanic.

Additionally, the Spurs selected Quinndary Weatherspoon in the second round, but in keeping with the dream scenarios, they should have taken Lu Dort instead, who somehow went undrafted. Dort signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder and has quickly established himself as a starter by becoming one of the better perimeter defenders in the NBA. Weatherspoon was worth a shot at 49, but it's clear that the Spurs and every team save for the Thunder missed on Dort.

Fortunately, Johnson increasingly looks like one of the five best players in the 2019 draft class. While San Antonio could have done better, they did a fantastic job of getting Johnson, and bonus points for extending him, giving him a super cheap 4-year, $74 million extension. That deal could quickly become one of the best contracts in the NBA.

2021: Alperen Sengun over Joshua Primo with the 12th pick

Spurs fans knew this was coming. From the moment Commissioner Adam Silver announced Joshua Primo's name, it proved to be a controversial decision. Primo's name didn't appear on most first-round mock drafts or even on some second-round ones as well. That made the Spurs' decision to draft him all the more surprising, especially with center Alperen Sengun also available at 12. The team had a need at center, even with Jakob Poeltl starting, and Sengun would have given the Spurs a highly skilled offensive big that they could have molded.

In many ways, he was the safe pick, but Primo was a mystery box. He might've worked out had it not been for his alleged misconduct, but the team gambled with a lottery pick, and it failed miserably. Houston ended up taking Sengun at 15, and he has turned into a terrific player. Things still worked out for the best with the Spurs signing Zach Collins to a value contract later in the summer of 2021, and that has begun to pay dividends.

They also later traded Poeltl for a first-round pick and two second-rounders, and now they are in a position to select Wembanyama first in this year's draft. Even then, it would have been nice to extract some value from a lottery pick.

San Antonio Spurs "Dream Team" if they nailed every NBA Draft

PG: Dejounte Murray, Jalen Brunson, and Isaiah Thomas

SG: Jimmy Butler, Derrick White

SF: Kawhi Leonard, Keldon Johnson

PF: Alperen Sengun, Robert Covington

C: Nikola Jokic, Kevon Looney

As you can see, the Spurs would be absolutely stacked had things played out differently. Although they missed out on quite a few talented players, the same could be said for every other team. In fact, San Antonio has managed to find quite a few diamonds in the rough, helping to offset the draft misses.

It is also important to note that there would be no way the team could afford to pay everyone, and it is questionable whether several of these players would have had the careers that they ended up having playing in San Antonio.

Instead, the Spurs now find themselves in the enviable position of having more draft picks than they know what to do with and the opportunity to select a once-in-a-generation prospect. Things could be much worse for the Spurs, who now have the chance to build their actual dream team around Wembanyama.