Ja'Kobi Gillespie may not look like the flashiest new piece on the Spurs’ roster, but his game gives San Antonio something it can actually use right away. The 6'1" guard brings shooting, defense, and enough poise to make a real case for rotation minutes if he keeps building on what he showed in college and Summer League.
Gillespie spent last season as one of the SEC’s top players, putting up 18.4 points and 5.4 assists while helping the Volunteers reach the Elite Eight. He also turned heads in Summer League, where he had several strong moments and even outplayed Darryn Peterson in their head-to-head meeting. He doesn’t come with the size, explosive athleticism, or ceiling some of San Antonio’s other young guards have, but the Spurs don’t need him to be a headline act to value what he does.
The biggest opening for Gillespie is on the perimeter. San Antonio finished last season top three in offensive rating for the first time since 2011, but its three-point shooting still left room to grow.
The Spurs ranked 14th in three-point attempts and 15th in percentage, and that weakness showed up again in the Finals, where they shot just 33.9% from deep. In a league where spacing drives everything, that kind of production matters.
That’s where Gillespie can help. If he delivers in training camp and the preseason, he can give Mitch Johnson another reliable option as a floor-spacer.
He’s shown the shot before, making over 38% of his threes in both his sophomore and junior seasons in college. In San Antonio’s second unit, he could work off the ball on the wings and in the corners, forcing defenders to stay attached and creating cleaner driving lanes for players like Dylan Harper, Keldon Johnson, and Tobias Harris.
His value isn’t limited to shooting, either. Gillespie’s defense fits what the Spurs want to be.
He plays with pressure on the ball, forces opponents into uncomfortable looks, and last season under Rick Barnes he averaged 2.1 steals per game. He also held his own defensively against Darryn Peterson in Summer League.
The size concerns are obvious, but they don’t automatically take him out of the picture. The last two NBA Finals series showed how much teams can get from smaller guards on the biggest stage, with the Pacers and Knicks both finding real production there. If Gillespie proves he can be a legitimate 3&D option, Johnson should have every reason to use him in his rookie season.
For a Spurs team trying to build out a deeper, more dependable rotation, Gillespie’s skill set looks ready-made for a role.
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Jones-Garcias path, though, is still a work in progress, which is why his summer matters. The Spurs may have some playing time available for him next season, and a reserve scoring job would be a real opening for a player trying to carve out a place in the rotation. How he looks in the qualifiers will help shape that discussion, especially if he can steady the parts of his game that have been less reliable lately. [Read more 🡒]