Spurs' 5 Best, worst, and wildcard picks in 2022 NBA Draft

The 2022 NBA Draft is fast approaching, and with the San Antonio Spurs having three picks in the 1st round, this offseason could be one of the most pivotal for the franchise in the past several years. Despite claims that this year's draft class is weak compared to past drafts, it's become abundantly clear that the Spurs will have a host of good options at the 9th, 20th, and 25th overall picks.

The Spurs will have so many options, in fact, that we put together a list of bite-sized reviews of 20 prospects that have been mocked to the Spurs. Today, though, we're going to go in-depth. After the Spurs shocked fans and draft analysts alike in the 2021 NBA Draft by selecting Josh Primo 12th overall, I made it a personal mission to cover as many bases as possible in this year's draft in hopes that we can prevent fans from being blindsided yet again.

With that in mind, though, take it from just about any draft analyst: predicting who the Spurs will select in the draft is a tough ask. While I think the Spurs' selection of Primo offered some insight into the team's draft strategy, nothing is certain and we inevitably run into some blind spots when researching draft prospects. So, with the help of my Air Alamo co-writers, we aimed to put on our Brian Wright caps and predict who the Spurs will select 9th overall in this year's draft.

Here's my methodology: I created three separate groups with five draft prospects in each group and presented those groups to my colleagues, making sure not to give any context as to why those players were grouped together. I then asked them to predict who they think the Spurs would like the most out of the five players in each group at the 9th overall pick, even if that player is not their personal top choice.

In this piece, I will present my cowriters' predictions along with my personal predictions, and explain why I labeled each player as a "best," "worst," or "wildcard" selection for the Spurs.