San Antonio Spurs: 2021 NBA Draft Lottery odds, prediction
By Josh Paredes
The San Antonio Spurs are hours away from knowing where they'll be selecting in the first round of the 2021 NBA Draft. After missing the playoffs for the second straight year, they'll have a second consecutive lottery pick after taking Devin Vassell with the 11th overall pick in 2020.
In one of the deepest draft classes in years, the Spurs should be able to find a quality guy ready to contribute now no matter where they end up in the draft order. We've done in-depth analysis pieces on several names to look out for, such as the 10 best shooters in the draft class, the five best defenders, and more. My colleague Roberto Araiza also shared his three NBA Draft dream scenarios recently.
Who San Antonio will be able to select depends on the results of Tuesday evening's NBA Draft Lottery, with seven possible different results.
The San Antonio Spurs' full 2021 NBA Draft Lottery odds
According to Tankathon.com's pick odds, the Spurs can finish 12th, 13th, first, second, third, or fourth after the lottery selection, with just a 0.1 percent chance of dropping to 14th. Here's how it all breaks down:
12th pick: 85.2 percent
13th pick: 6.6
4th pick: 2.4
3rd pick: 2.1
2nd pick: 1.9
1st pick: 1.7
14th pick: 0.1
Predicting the San Antonio Spurs' selection spot
Given that there's an above-90 percent chance the Spurs won't move up into the top four, I think it's a safe bet to say the Spurs will be selecting 12th in the first round of the 2021 NBA Draft. Obviously, I hope that's not the case, as the Spurs have pulled of lottery selection miracles before, so maybe they can do so again.
For fun, I recently ran 100 NBA Draft Lottery simulations using Tankathon, which actually doubled the Spurs' chances of rising up to second (it happened four times in 100 tries). If San Antonio miraculously rises up to the Evan Mobley spot, I'd like to take at least partial credit.
San Antonio will be represented by new managing partner Peter J. Holt at the draft lottery Tuesday, which takes place at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN from Barclays Center.