Grading the Athletic’s Spurs picks in latest 2024 NBA mock draft

Sam Vecenie’s draft haul for the Spurs leaves a bit to be desired

To get straight to the point, a potential starting lineup of Topic, Vassell, Buzelis, Sochan, and Wembanyama is interesting when only considering sheer upside, but the most immediate concern with this group would be shooting. If the Spurs front office is confident in Vassell’s continued efficiency along with significant improvements from both Sochan and Wembanyama, then this group could be offensively viable earlier than expected. But there is also a timeline where this group struggles to put the ball in the basket just as much, if not even more, than the current starting lineup.

Furthermore, there are several other combinations of wing and guard prospects that could have been had in this mock draft that I find more complementary and generally more appealing than Topic/Buzelis, many of which involve Kentucky’s Rob Dillingham (selected 14th overall in Vecenie’s mock draft) along with one of the wing players taken 4th, 5th, and 6th overall. While Vecenie’s selections certainly aren’t catastrophic or even less than decent, these picks would ultimately bring about more questions than answers from a roster-building perspective.

Overall grade: B-