NBA Draft 2019: 5 best fits for Bol Bol

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 15: Oregon Ducks center Bol Bol (1) during the first half of the College Basketball game between the Oregon Ducks and the Iowa Hawkeyes on November 15, 2018 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

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LOS ANGELES, CA – FEBRUARY 21: Oregon center Bol Bol (1) looks on before a college basketball game between the Oregon Ducks and the USC Trojans on February 21, 2019 at Galen Center in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

3. San Antonio Spurs (No. 19 pick, No. 29 pick)

Outside of the reductive “It’s the Spurs! They’ll make it work!” argument, the particular fit of Bol as a backup for LaMarcus Aldridge is interesting. A functional mobile defensive center with good hands like Jakob Poeltl is a nice blueprint pairing for Bol, and Aldridge offers a post hub who Bol can play off of either in the dunker spot or on the 3-point line. There’s also probably value to Bol’s handling ability on this team, as the Spurs have done a great job in particular of maximizing on-ball driving ability, and Bol does have some good capability there.

More important, though, the Spurs should be a good bet to get what they need out of him as a defender. They have a good development staff that can work on improving Bol’s awareness, but more importantly, they will do a good job of putting Bol in ideal positions to succeed as a defender. that may mean going as far as running a decent amount of zone, where Bol was legitimately impactful on the wing in his brief Oregon tenure. They will get him maximized in terms of footwork too, and if there’s any hope of him being a capable perimeter defender, that has to improve.

The Spurs don’t hit every draft pick, but Bol’s the type of player they could definitely figure out how to get good value out of. They may not want to spend the 19th pick on him, but if he’s there at 29, he makes a lot of sense.

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