Spurs Draft Spotlight: Why A.J. Griffin Looks Like a Must-Draft

Closing thoughts: A.J. Griffin checks all the boxes for the Spurs

As the college basketball season goes on, the Spurs should only find more reasons to be enamored with A.J. Griffin. He would bring the team an immediate injection of scoring and 3-point shooting to take some of the scoring load off of Dejounte Murray while still keeping the ball in his hands to run the offense. On defense, he's theoretically a player that will be easily switchable and can guard four positions.

Griffin is very much a player that is capable of thriving with the ball in or out of his hands, and that has become increasingly evident through his role in Duke's rotation. Even after dislocating his knee before the college basketball season started, beginning the season by playing very few minutes at a time, and playing in an off-ball role to top things off, Griffin has managed to quickly carve out a role for himself within Duke's rotation. The difficulty of such a feat should not go understated or unnoticed.

To go even a bit deeper than that, if you're a fan of players that are the sons of coaches, then you'll have yet another reason to like A.J. Griffin. His father, Adrian Griffin, served as an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder, and (most recently) the championship-winning Toronto Raptors in 2019.

Beyond all of this, Griffin is young enough to be a long-term teammate of Josh Primo's yet already polished enough to break the rotation soon and have a more immediate impact. If the Spurs find themselves with a high enough pick in the upcoming draft or are willing to trade up the board to select him, A.J. Griffin ought to draw a lot of attention and consideration from the Spurs.