The San Antonio Spurs may have a second-unit answer hiding in plain sight, and it starts with Dylan Harper and Luke Kornet. Both players are already important pieces of the rotation, but together they could give San Antonio a different kind of punch - one built around a clean pick-and-roll look that the team doesn’t always have.
Harper is expected to see a major jump in minutes this season, and the Spurs are banking on that growth to strengthen the bench and lift the team’s overall ceiling. Kornet, meanwhile, could carve out a bigger lane in the offense as well. The fit is obvious: Kornet is San Antonio’s best screen setter, while Harper is arguably its best at attacking the basket.
That combination opens the door to something useful right away. Harper can handle the ball more in the second unit, get more reps as an on-ball creator, and use Kornet’s screens to force defenses into tough choices.
When a big sets a real screen, it creates room for drives, drags defenders toward the paint, and can leave shooters available on the perimeter. It also gives Kornet a direct path to the rim, where he can finish lobs.
There’s already a hint of how that might look. Kornet has shown he can be a solid lob threat alongside Stephon Castle, and Harper could take that same idea further.
He can turn the corner, get downhill, draw help, and kick to open shooters. He can also go straight to the rim through contact or find Kornet for alley oops.
That matters because the Spurs don’t have that kind of screen-setting gravity everywhere. Victor Wembanyama draws so much attention rolling to the basket that he doesn’t need to be elite at setting picks to make plays happen.
But his presence doesn’t solve every problem for the guards. When they’re dealing with strong perimeter defenders, getting clean separation can still be a challenge.
That showed up in the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks, when De'Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and Harper couldn’t create the same daylight on drives. The offense paid for it. A Harper-Kornet pairing could help smooth over those stretches, especially when Wembanyama is off the floor.
For San Antonio, the stakes are simple: winning the non-Wembanyama minutes is a big part of winning more often. Good teams usually survive the minutes when their star sits.
The Spurs could do more than survive if Harper and Kornet become a reliable bench engine. That’s why using Harper as the primary playmaker off the bench, especially with Kornet beside him, looks like the kind of move that could matter quickly.
In Other News...
Spurs Just Added A Camp Body And The Next Cut Matters
The Spurs filled the open spot on their preseason roster by bringing in free agent forward Terry Taylor on a non-guaranteed training camp contract, a move that gets San Antonio to the preseason maximum of 21 players. To make room, the team waived RJ Davis, and Taylor is widely expected to land with the Austin Spurs, where he can remain in the organization and keep working through camp.
For San Antonio, the transaction is less about the immediate rotation than about the next round of roster trimming, since camp bodies often become the first domino to fall. Taylor brings NBA experience from stints with multiple teams, and the Spurs will also be watching how other clubs manage their own depth, including Sacramentos recent decision to bring back center Viktor Lakhin on an Exhibit 10 deal as injury concerns continue to shape frontcourt plans. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Rookie Battle Is Heating Up After A Brutal First-Round Setback
The Spurs entered camp with plenty of rookie intrigue, but the early picture changed quickly when Jayden Quaintance, the No. 20 overall pick, was expected to miss most or all of his first season after meniscus surgery. For a team already trying to sort out rotations and sharpen its depth, that kind of setback puts extra attention on the rest of the rookie class and how quickly it can help fill in the edges.
Tarris Reed Jr. and JaKobi Gillespie have both flashed in preseason, giving San Antonio something to evaluate as the lineup takes shape around a group that is expected to keep improving. Mitch Johnson has already singled out Gillespies energy and competitiveness, and with Carter Bryant expected to make a leap in his second year, the Spurs have more developmental pieces to monitor than answers locked in place just yet. [Read more 🡒]
De'Aaron Fox Just Changed How Spurs Fans Will View His Finals Struggles
De'Aaron Fox has been around long enough to know how quickly the conversation can turn in the postseason, and he made it clear he does not spend much time swimming in it. After Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Fox said he steers clear of basketball chatter on social media and does not entertain the negative opinions that tend to pile up when a stars production dips at the wrong time. For fans trying to make sense of his struggles, the bigger context now matters: the guard said he was battling through a high ankle sprain he suffered in the Western Conference Semifinals.
Foxs revelation changes the way his playoff run should be judged, especially for a player whose reputation has been built on speed, toughness and staying on the floor. He stressed that he kept competing anyway, even as the injury clearly affected him deep into the postseason. For San Antonio observers, it is the kind of detail that reframes a rough stretch without erasing it, and it leaves the broader discussion where it often ends up in the Finals: somewhere between what the box score showed and what the body was quietly enduring. [Read more 🡒]