A loud night time on the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery in Chicago earlier this month netted the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs the No. 1 and No. 2 picks on this 12 months’s draft, respectively, turning the highest of the draft on its head in a flash. However the fallout from Dallas shifting up 10 spots and San Antonio shifting up six spots from their prelottery positions may very well be widespread and take years to unfurl.
How that fateful lottery impacts not simply the Mavs and Spurs within the quick and long run, however the remainder of the NBA, has shortly turn into the scuttlebutt in league circles.
The one certainty proper now’s that Dallas will make Cooper Flagg the No. 1 decide. With Flagg a -100,000 favourite to be picked No. 1 within the draft at FanDuel Sportsbook, that is hardly a daring prediction.
However past that, San Antonio has a menu of choices past sticking and choosing. So far: it has acknowledged publicly it would maintain the decide and isn’t purchasing it. Nevertheless, there isn’t any incentive for Spurs brass to dangle that asset and announce it’s available on the market — broadly believed to be very, very precious, given how extremely Dylan Harper is considered — to push down its perceived worth.
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Cameron Salerno
The reality is that this: San Antonio has a rising star in Rookie of the Yr guard Stephon Fortress and it additionally traded for De’Aaron Fox. It is a excellent, and deep, backcourt in place. Including Harper to that blend may complicate issues.
I do not doubt San Antonio could be thrilled so as to add him to its younger core, to be clear. He is an excellent prospect. And I feel taking one other participant who matches higher as an alternative of the most effective prospect is problematic. (That is how you find yourself taking Marvin Bagley III over a Luka Doncic. Sorry, Kings followers.)
However I am skeptical San Antonio is not, on the very least, noodling over different choices, which would come with buying and selling again — or buying and selling it altogether.
Enter 6-foot-11 Giannis Antetokounmpo.
In my first mock draft after final week’s NBA Draft Mix, I’ve the Spurs in a blockbuster deal packaging, amongst different issues, the No. 2 and No. 14 picks to land the 30-year-old former MVP winner and nine-time All-Star from the Bucks. There’d be plenty of picks and gamers going Milwaukee’s means as compensation. It’d take lots, and whether or not San Antonio thinks it might be value it stays to be seen. Once more: San Antonio publicly has stated it plans to maintain the decide, by which case I imagine Harper could be the choice.
However the concept of pairing Giannis subsequent to a real famous person in Victor Wembanyama is an attraction that would, and will, be robust to show down. Few groups have the draft and roster property to make it value Milwaukee’s whereas. San Antonio has that. And it’d current a uncommon likelihood for the Bucks to reset whereas getting compensated for his or her troubles.
Let’s get to the mock.