The Spurs have been sending mixed messages about Dylan Harper for months, and now the gap between what they said and what they apparently believe is impossible to ignore.
According to the latest Hoop Collective, Brian Windhorst said the organization - and rival front offices - view Harper as San Antonio’s second-best player right now. If that’s the real internal read, then the offseason messaging never made much sense.
The story told to everyone else was that Harper would stay on the bench, that he was fine with it, and that he understood the order of things. That was the line for months.
Then the other version surfaced: Harper and his camp would not be pleased with a reserve role. Put those two ideas next to each other, and the obvious answer is to start him.
It’s not just that fans spent the summer arguing over a problem the team may have already solved. Harper himself has been the one asked to explain a role the organization supposedly doesn’t even believe in.
If the Spurs truly think the former Rutgers guard is the Robin to Victor Wembanyama’s Batman, that wasn’t something they had to discover yesterday. They would have known it in June. Instead, they let the bench debate hang out there and made Harper keep answering for it.
The usual comparison in this kind of conversation is Manu Ginobili, but that doesn’t really fit. Ginobili was the 57th pick.
Harper was the No. 2 pick, and that changes everything - the expectations, the leverage, the whole conversation. A top lottery pick landing in a championship-ready setup and immediately looking like the second-best player is a different animal.
The cleaner comparisons are Kevin McHale and James Harden, and even those only go so far. McHale was the third pick in 1980 and spent five years coming off Boston’s bench, but he wasn’t viewed as one of the Celtics’ top three players until years later. Harden, meanwhile, was the third pick in 2009 and came off the bench for a 2012 Finals team, but Russell Westbrook was the No. 2 player on that roster before Harden later pushed for a trade in search of a starting job and more money.
Harper is already a sophomore who averaged 14.1 points and 5.6 rebounds over 23 playoff games. That’s almost three times as many postseason appearances as Giannis Antetokounmpo has had in the last four years, and he’s already ranked ahead of everyone on the roster except Wembanyama.
So the “wait your turn” argument just doesn’t hold up here. The Spurs still have to sort out the non-Wembanyama minutes, and Mitch Johnson can handle that part.
The roster has enough depth to manage it. But if San Antonio really believes Harper is their second-best player, then the decision should be simple: start him.
In Other News...
Spurs Rotation Shift Could Cost Julian Champagnie A Bigger Role
The Spurs frontcourt picture got a little clearer this summer with the addition of Tobias Harris, and that has naturally started to reshape the rotation around him. Harris is expected to handle the starting power forward spot once healthy, which gives San Antonio a veteran presence at a position it had to address, while also putting Julian Champagnie in a spot where his role could shift depending on how the roster settles in around the new arrival.
Champagnie is still positioned to open the season in the starting five because Harris is dealing with an injury, but the long view is less certain. His place in the lineup may not last once Harris is available, and for now the more interesting part is how he handles the change after showing an acceptance of whatever role the Spurs ask of him as they sort out the minutes. [Read more 🡒]
Rockets Suddenly Linked To A De'Aaron Fox Move That Changes Everything
The Spurs have spent this stretch leaning into their young core, with guards Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle drawing a lot of attention as the organization keeps shaping its backcourt around Victor Wembanyama. Harper in particular has flashed enough to fuel the kind of optimism that usually comes with a premium draft pick, and the teams long-term picture appears to be getting clearer by the week as San Antonio continues to prioritize development over short-term fixes.
Thats where the DeAaron Fox conversation starts to get interesting, because the Spurs have more to sort through than just playing time at guard. If Harper is going to be part of the front line moving forward, Fox becomes the name that could alter the rotation and the roster balance in a hurry, with one scenario even sending him to Houston. For a team still defining its next version, the decision could say plenty about how quickly San Antonio wants to accelerate the timeline around Wembanyama and the young guards beside him. [Read more 🡒]
Victor Wembanyama Is Entering The Season With Massive MVP Pressure
Victor Wembanyama is walking into the season with a different kind of spotlight, and it is not hard to see why. NBCSports.coms analysts all pointed to the Spurs star as the early favorite for the NBAs Most Valuable Player award, leaning on what he already showed at an MVP level last season and the sense that there is still more room for him to grow. For San Antonio, that kind of recognition is a sign of how far the franchise has come in a short time, with Wembanyama no longer viewed as a future candidate so much as the standard everyone else is chasing.
The race will still have familiar heavyweights around it, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo all part of the conversation. But the real weight on Wembanyama is clear: this is the sort of projection that depends on him staying on the floor and the Spurs looking like one of the Wests best teams. For a player this young, the expectation is already enormous, and the season ahead could turn that buzz into something much bigger. [Read more 🡒]