Draft Roundup: Topic injury update, will Spurs trade picks?
In the latest Draft Roundup, we'll explore the injury update on Nikola Topic, Spurs trade rumors with their picks, and players who are rising or falling on mock drafts.
Since the last Draft Roundup on May 31, let’s dive into the latest rumors, injury updates, and movement on mocks, with the draft now a little less than 3 weeks away.
Will the Spurs move up in the draft or trade their picks?
Tuesday in his updated mock draft, Kevin O’Connor of the Ringer wrote this:
League sources say the Spurs, who have the fourth and eighth picks, could try to package them to move up.
If the Spurs were to move up, one could infer they would try to get up to 1st (Atlanta), to see if they can be the first team to draft 6’9” forward Zaccharie Risacher of France.
The Spurs have shown interest in Risacher well before they even knew which picks they’d have, plus, with Risacher rising on mock drafts to the number one overall spot by mock average, he’s very very unlikely to be available for the 4th pick.
I wrote about Risacher in late April:
Jonathan Givony of ESPN has also been doing interviews lately in which he said he’s heard the Spurs might not just move the 4th and 8th picks to move up in the draft, but instead, to see if they can acquire an established veteran player, such as Darius Garland. Givony said what he’s heard is the Spurs want to try to get back into the playoff picture quickly, and they don’t want to go through a slow 2 to 3 year rebuild where they’re right back in the lottery trying to land a Top-5 pick next season.
On a Bleacher Report livestream Wednesday, I looked at some trade ideas for the Spurs that included Garland, Dejounte Murray, Malcolm Brogdon, Trae Young, and Cameron Johnson.
I’ll be writing about each of those trade ideas in the near future here on this Substack.
Nikola Topic Injury Update
Wednesday Givony reported Nikola Topic has a partially torn ACL. Topic’s agent confirmed the injury to Givony.
Topic will be going to the United States to see what the next plan of action will be going forward for his injury. Topic’s agent told Givony he doesn’t think the injury will impact Topic’s draft stock, but as I outlined last week, Topic was already starting to slip on mock drafts.
The latest update of mocks I went through Wednesday evening hadn’t even included the recent news of Topic’s injury, so right now, his mock average is 10th, but he could start to fall even further than that in the coming updated mocks.
For a Top-10 lottery team like the Spurs, they’ll get access to review all of Topic’s updated medical information before they have to decide if they want to draft him with the 4th or 8th picks.
Rob Dillingham Falling on Mocks
In recent mock updates, Kentucky guard Rob Dillingham has started to fall more and more, with a mock average of 10th. Before, his mock average was 7th, and he was usually in the point guard draft range with Reed Sheppard and Stephon Castle.
Mocks now have Dillingham going as early as 6th or as late as 15th. Krysten Peek of Yahoo! wrote about how Dillingham’s pre-draft process has been quiet, with him not going through some of the combine or pro-day drills, due to a sore ankle.
I wrote an in-depth scouting report on Dillingham last month:
Tidjane Salaun Rising on Mocks
6’9” French forward Tidjane Salaun of Cholet is quickly rising on mocks, with a mock average now in the Top-10 at 9th, with some mocks having him being selected as early as 5th.
This season in 54 games, Salaun is averaging 9.5 points on 8.3 shots, with shooting splits of 39/33/70, with 4.4 three point attempts. He’s collecting 3.9 boards, 0.9 assists, 1.3 turnovers, 1 steal, 0.2 blocks, and 2.4 fouls in 23 minutes per game.
Some of Salaun’s NBA comps include Chandler Parsons, Michael Porter Jr., and Maurice Harkless to Jerami Grant and Kyle Kuzma
I’ll be diving into film on Salaun soon for an upcoming scouting report.
Could the Spurs move one of the second round picks?
Sam Vecenie of the Athletic recently wrote the Spurs might look at moving one of their second round picks.
San Antonio, at No. 35, also has two lottery picks, and may not want to bring a third rookie onto its roster with two second-year players and three third-year players.
The Spurs will have 12 players with guaranteed deals next season when you include the 4th and 8th picks. They have 3 players on non-guaranteed deals they need to make decisions on soon, plus, they already have 2 two-way roster spots being filled by RaiQuan Gray and Jamaree Bouyea.
Since the Spurs have picks 35 and 48 in the second round, it makes sense why San Antonio might want to move one of those picks in a trade. If they wanted those 2 picks to be on two-way contracts, then they’d have to waive Gray or Bouyea, or if they wanted to sign one of the second round picks to a regular season contract, they’d be limiting their roster room for other free agents or players they’d want to acquire in a trade.