Spurs turned biggest weakness into greatest strength in less than 5 months

It wasn't too long ago that the San Antonio Spurs had a big hole on their roster when it came to shot creators. Now, after the team selected Dylan Harper with the second overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, that former crutch has suddenly become one of the Spurs' biggest strengths.

San Antonio entered the 2025 calendar year with a generational centerpiece in Victor Wembanyama, but not exactly the most ideal supporting players around him. They obviously changed that when they made one of the more aggressive moves in recent franchise history, making a big trade for De'Aaron Fox ahead of the trade deadline. 

The front office clearly put all their chips in the center of the table, betting that Fox's speed, scoring, and playmaking punch would be the perfect complement to Wembanyama's budding superstar talent. Now, in selecting Harper, the Spurs have doubled down. What they've done is turned what was unquestionably formerly one of the roster's biggest weaknesses, and legitimately turned it into one of its biggest strengths. 

The Spurs now have elite shot-creation

The combo guard from Rutgers University has been described by scouts as a future star in the NBA. His high level creation abilities, court vision and feel for the game are in a class of their own. If it weren't for Cooper Flagg, Harper would probably be the unquestioned number one pick. 

It's one thing to draft the best player available, which is what the Spurs did. But it's another thing to do that while also continuing to fill what was still one of your team's biggest needs. I don't see this becoming a situation of redundancy on San Antonio's roster. Rather, the Spurs are paying attention to the league and making sure they have more ball-handlers that can score at will. 

It's not too dissimilar to how the Oklahoma City Thunder put a lot of capable ball handlers around Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, or how the Celtics also operate with a multitude of guys that can be the lead ball-handler. The Spurs are adapting to the times, and fans should be thrilled with this development.

Arguably the hardest part of San Antonio's process has now been solved. Getting your lead ball-handlers is a challenging task, and the rest of the rebuild process now becomes a bit more manageable.