{"id":202172,"date":"2026-06-25T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=202172"},"modified":"2026-06-25T09:03:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T13:03:23","slug":"spurs-2026-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/06\/25\/spurs-2026-first-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Grading The San Antonio Spurs’ 2026 First-Round Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Antonio Spurs have already fixed a major hole after day one of the 2026 NBA Draft<\/a>. With the 20th and 26th picks, the Spurs doubled down on size and rebounding. The Spurs sent away three second-round picks to gain the 26th pick from the Denver Nuggets. After going through the playoffs with an undersized starting power forward in Julien Champagnie<\/a>, star Victor Wembanyama<\/a> struggled and got attacked on all sides of the ball. Pairing him with more size will allow Wembanyama to play at his best<\/a> and put even more pressure on the paint for opponents.<\/p>\n

Grading The San Antonio Spurs’ 2026 First-Round Picks<\/h2>\n

Pick 20: Jayden Quaintance- A<\/h3>\n

Quaintance<\/a>, a 255-pound forward, easily could have been a lottery pick if healthy. Instead, San Antonio selected him with the 20th pick in the NBA Draft. Even better for the team, he should be able to play next season<\/a>, even if he misses some time. What makes the situation even better is that Quaintance<\/a> is only 18 years old. The big man is an elite rim protector, just like Wembanyama, with the reach and speed to adjust shots from outside the paint. He has plenty of time to learn and adjust to the NBA and gives the Spurs a much-needed boost to their size and rebounding. Finding a potential future starter at pick 20 is a homerun.<\/p>\n

Pick 26: Tarris Reed Jr.- B+<\/h3>\n

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In Tarris Reed Jr.<\/a>, the team gets a more traditional big man to help support the front court until Quaintance gets healthier. Joining Stephon Castle<\/a> as another Spur from the University of Connecticut, San Antonio’s decision to draft him was definitely influenced by the system he was coming from. At six-foot-ten, he has legitimate size to play the center position in the NBA, and his rebounding skills are even more impressive. Reed<\/a> became the first player since the 1960s to score over 30 points with more than 25 boards in the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n

However, his ceiling is limited by his lack of shooting ability. Not only that, but the chances of him developing a shooting game are extremely unlikely. His ceiling is most likely as a backup center who can potentially play similarly to Mitchell Robinson<\/a>, who gave the Spurs problems recently. Considering that the Spurs gave up three picks for him, this drops the overall rating of the pick somewhat. These picks were all in the second round, which isn’t a lot of value to give up.<\/p>\n

What Is The Plan Now After The Draft?<\/h3>\n

Given that San Antonio chose two players who could spend time at the center position, some fans have speculated that Luke Kornet<\/a> could be moved. This is unlikely, given that one of the players selected is injured and the other player will most likely need several years to reach Kornet’s level. The Spurs also do not have significant cap space problems currently. They can add more players in free agency and still avoid the dreaded luxury tax. Kornet is 30 years old. The Spurs most likely want to have players ready to take his place once he gets older.<\/p>\n

San Antonio has not selected another ball handler, something that has been generally discussed as their only other big weakness. With free agency coming soon, only time will tell if they choose one or if they don’t make any moves at all. The team could be potentially holding off on taking a new guard until they figure out the De’Aaron Fox<\/a> experiment<\/a>. If one thing is clear, Harrison Barnes<\/a> will most likely be gone.<\/p>\n

Although Quaintance most likely won’t play until early winter, Champagnie, Reed, and Carter Bryant<\/a> will all take time at power forward. Even if the Spurs are silent in free agency, Quaintance and Reed should be expected to heavily change the play style of the Spurs when they enter the court.<\/p>\n

Featured Image: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The San Antonio Spurs have already fixed a major hole after day one of the 2026 NBA Draft. With the 20th and 26th picks, the Spurs doubled down on size and rebounding. The Spurs sent away three second-round picks to gain the 26th pick from the Denver Nuggets. After going through the playoffs with an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5757,"featured_media":202291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,556,3,34],"tags":[49942,1776,4669],"class_list":["post-202172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-nba-draft","category-news","category-spurs","tag-2026-nba-draft","tag-luke-kornet","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5757"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202172"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202293,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202172\/revisions\/202293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}