Tarris Reed Jr. may have lucked into ideal Spurs mentor in Luke Kornet

Rookie Tarris Reed Jr. is in the perfect situation to succeed with the San Antonio Spurs, and they have the perfect mentor for him in Luke Kornet. Kornet, like Reed Jr., is known for his size, physicality, and skill as a center.

Despite going undrafted, Kornet has carved out a nearly 10-year NBA career simply by doing all the little things well. As a second round pick, Reed Jr. will have to do the same if he wants to stick in the NBA.

Fortunately, he has the perfect potential mentor in Kornet who can show him the ropes and how to do all the things needed to help a team win. Judging by his two preseason games, Reed Jr. is already well on his way to carving out a role with the Spurs.

He grabbed three offensive rebounds in just 10 minutes against the Atlanta Hawks and posted 10 points and 6 rebounds in only 9 minutes against the Phoenix Suns. That physicality and production could be a much-needed addition to San Antonio's front line.

Tarris Reed Jr. could learn a lot from Luke Kornet

In addition to providing offensive rebounding, Reed Jr. is a terrific screen setter. That's something that's missing from the Spurs aside from Kornet.

Rookie big men often struggle with fouling, with them usually called for moving screens or fouls at the rim. That's something Kornet could potentially teach Reed Jr., with the former having built a career being an above-average rim protector and screen setter—one who fouls surprisingly little.

Hopefully, learning from Kornet could help make his transition to the NBA much smoother, with them having somewhat similar games. San Antonio could use another bruiser in the mold of Kornet, and Reed Jr. could provide that and more.

Still, he will be third in the team's center depth chart to start the season. Despite that, he may still play a fairly large role this season. Remember, last year, Victor Wembanyama missed 18 games while Kornet missed 10, making a third center necessary.

The Spurs need Tarris Reed Jr. to be ready this season

San Antonio needs a third center who can capably play when needed, and Reed Jr. seems perfectly suited to do so even as a rookie. It's even possible that the Spurs experiment with playing him with Kornet, like they did in the preseason against the Atlanta Hawks.

Or, they could utilize more French Vanilla with the Silver and Black now having a playable third center. Whether that happens will depend on how impactful Reed Jr. is.

If he can be effective on the glass—especially the offensive glass—set hard screens and be a capable rim protector and solid finisher at the rim, then yes. Hopefully Kornet can show him a few tricks of the trade, anything to help the rookie succeed this season.

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