Spurs Lottery gift shows blockbuster trade was an impatient blunder

Victon Wembanyama was really good, really quickly. He entered the NBA as a Top-50 player, was All-Star worthy by the end of his rookie season, and as a sophomore was the front-runner for Defensive Player of the Year and would have received a number of MVP votes.

It is therefore understandable that the San Antonio Spurs felt they were justified to accelerate the timetable. To puch the gas. When you have a Top-10 player in the league you look to put pieces around him that are worthy of that status. Letting Wembanyama languish on a team deep in the lottery standings feels wrong on some level.

That was the motivation, at least in part, behind the Trade Deadline trade for former Sacramento Kings point guard De'Aaron Fox. When he came available and showed interest in San Antonio as a destination, the Spurs went to work and traded for the former All-Star. The Spurs didn't exhaust their trade assets, not by any means, but they sent a significant number of them and committed a lot of money to bring in Fox.

Just a few months later, that move already looks like a mistake.

The Spurs blundered by trading for De'Aaron Fox

De'Aaron Fox is a really good basketball player. He is an explosive scorer, a terror in the open court with his combination of speed and handle, and he makes for an exciting co-star next to Victor Wembanyama. Teams forced to stop Wembanyama from popping and Fox from driving will tie themselves into knots.

Yet there is one drawback to committing to Fox, and it has to do with a long line drawn onto the court: Fox is a mediocre 3-point shooter. For his career, he has hit only 33 percent from deep, and this past season he shot a frigid 31 percent, including just 27.4 percent in 17 games with the Spurs before he underwent a season-ending finger injury.

You can get away with your point guard being a below-average shooter when you have the greatest high-volume stretch big in league history, but it forces limitations on the rest of your roster. That matters all the more for the Spurs and Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle, who is even worse of a shooter than Fox; he hit only 28.5 percent from deep this year.

The trade only looks worse after Monday night. The Spurs were handed a gift in the NBA Draft Lottery, moving up all the way to the No. 2 pick. They will have the opportunity to add another blue-chip prospect to their young core, slotting him alongside Wembanyama, Castle and Devin Vassell.

The problem is that the consensus No. 2 prospect in this class is Rutgers guard Dylan Harper, a lead guard with size who can do everything except shoot. He is a gifted playmaker, a stout defender and has the upside to be an all-around All-Star down the line in his career. Nearly every draft analyst that you can find has Harper as the No. 2 player in this draft.

Yet Harper would be a terrible fit next to Castle and Fox. His NBA game is yet to be determined; perhaps he will find a way to thrive off the ball. Yet his special upside appears to be attached to having the ball in his hands; Fox has likewise proven to have a limited impact without the ball.

If the Spurs had been patient -- if not Fox, someone would have been available this summer -- they would be in position to draft Harper and have a versatile, dogged defensive pairing in the backcourt with Harper and Castle. The fit wouldn't have been perfect but there would have been force multipliers -- and they would have been extremely young with miles of upside. Additionally, the Spurs would have all of their assets still on hand to trade for a different star -- one who fits perfectly with their young core.

Now the Spurs are faced with a needless dilemma: draft Harper and try to mash together players who will strangle the Spurs' offense, or reach for a lesser prospect based purely on fit -- a draft no-no when you are picking this highly.

The Spurs could have built a teenage core ready to develop together into a juggernaut around a generational superstar. Now they are stuck making the best of what should be an amazing situation, and all because they couldn't be patient and let this team develop.