The San Antonio Spurs were hit with shocking injury news out of All-Star Weekend: Victor Wembanyama's season is done due to deep vain thrombosis in his right shoulder. Essentially, the former No. 1 pick has an isolated blood clot in his shoulder, which will put him on medical leave the rest of the way.
There is an expectation that Wembanyama will be back and ready to go for the start of next season, but blot clots are a serious issue and it's hard not to get a little queasy when thinking about the implications of an ailment like this so early in Wemby's career. He's a special player — a potential face of the NBA for the next decade-plus. Nobody wants to see his ascent sidetracked in any way.
San Antonio's immediate goals ought to shift dramatically with Wemby out of the lineup. There's no longer a point in gunning for the Play-In Tournament. Even if this Spurs team somehow holds together well enough to crack the Play-In, De'Aaron Fox is not leading them anywhere on his own. Frankly, the Spurs probably won't be able to stay afloat regardless of their intent.
That's right: It's time to embrace the tank. San Antonio famously added Tim Duncan as the No. 1 overall pick after a season in which David Robinson got hurt. What if Cooper Flagg and Victor Wembanyama joined forces in Southwest Texas? That is a thought passing through many minds right now.
Here are five prospects the Spurs should think about when gearing up to tank.
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5. Derik Queen, Maryland
Maryland freshman Queen has been on an absolute heater, averaging 19.4 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists on 61.5 percent shooting over his last five games. The Spurs don't necessarily need another big next to Wembanyama, but Queen's skill set aligns in compelling ways. He's also an obvious upside bet in the mid-to-late lottery, which the Spurs should not be opposed to at this stage.
Queen is listed at 6-foot-10 and 246 pounds, occupying a traditional frame in today's nontraditional game. There were doubts early in the season about how Queen's repertoire might translate to the NBA, specifically on defense, but those are starting to fall by the wayside. He's just too gifted offensively, with a silky-smooth post game complemented by an impressive knack for slashing off the dribble.
He still doesn't shoot a ton of 3s, but Queen has touch in the mid-range and remarkable coordination as a ball-handler. He has real burst on drives to the cup, deploying his strength and polished footwork to carve out space and find avenues to the rim — or to open up passing lanes, which he exploits with guard-like court vision. Queen's dynamic, downhill skill set does seem to fit the modern NBA, and it'd make for a potent frontcourt pairing next to Wemby, who's averaging 8.8 attempts per game from deep. We desperately need a modern version of the Anthony Davis-Boogie Cousins frontcourt. Queen and Wemby might make it happen.
4. Liam McNeeley, UConn
McNeeley has returned with a vengeance after an extended absence due to an ankle injury. He put up 38 points and 10 rebounds against Creighton on Feb. 11, hitting five 3s and racking up 10 free throw attempts. It's clear the freshman is UConn's most important piece, and the only real reason to cling to dying dreams of a three-peat in March.
As far as NBA fit is concerned, McNeeley should flourish in just about any system. The NBA is always starved for volume-shooting wings who process the floor quickly and play solid defense. McNeeley is a good athlete at 6-foot-7, and he's more than just a gifted movement shooter (although that skill would benefit the Spurs specifically quite a bit). He can beat closeouts with hard straight-line drives and he's comfortable running the occasional pick-and-roll, mixing speeds as a ball-handler and utilizing his strength to absorb contact in the lane.
McNeeley is not a dynamic self-creator, but he's one of the more well-rounded and NBA-ready prospects in the draft. The Spurs, in theory, hope to contend next season after a full summer to build around Wemby and Fox. McNeeley is an easy day-one rotation cog, with a skill set this Spurs team desperately lacks on the wing.
3. V.J. Edgecombe, Baylor
Edgecombe's season got off to a bumpy start at Baylor, where his skill set isn't always optimized, but it has been a complete barn-burner for the last month or so. The explosive freshman is up to 35.5 percent on a healthy volume of 3s, with defensive metrics out the wazoo and tantalizing flashes of playmaking.
If the Spurs tank properly and luck into a top-five pick, Edgecombe has to be high on their board. The combined defensive playmaking of Wemby in the middle and Edgecombe on the perimeter would be transformative. The Spurs have struggled to surround Wemby with viable stoppers on that end of the floor. Edgecombe, a one percent of one percent athlete, can handle the toughest assignments on a nightly basis while racking up both steals (2.1 per game) and blocks (0.7 per game).
The offense still requires patience, but if Edgecombe is a passable shooter, the world opens up before him. He's not a high-level on-ball creator, but his first step has very few comps around the Association. Edgecombe can get downhill in a hurry, where his vertical pop and strength makes it difficult to keep him away from the front of the rim. He's passing at a high level off of these drives (3.3 assists to 2.0 turnovers) and flashing handle development that would launch him into the stratosphere.
2. Dylan Harper, Rutgers
The Spurs have their elite slashing point guard in De'Aaron Fox, but if San Antonio happens to land at No. 2 or No. 3, there's no passing on Dylan Harper. The Rutgers freshman hasn't experienced much team success, but he has flourished individually, emerging as one of the most potent scoring threats in the Big Ten.
Harper has battled through his share of injuries, but the 6-foot-6, 215-pound guard is blessed with elite positional size and strength. He operates well at various tempos, mixing speeds in pick-and-rolls and deploying his burst as soon as he has put the defender on ice. Harper can finish with craft or brute physicality in the paint. He should get to the free throw line a ton. And while not a great shooter (33.3 percent from deep this season), Harper and Fox should collectively space the floor enough for each other.
The best NBA teams all have multiple sources of high-level advantage creation. Take, for example, OKC, a team chock full of elite drivers who constantly get two feet in the paint and send the entire offense into harmonious motion. San Antonio could attempt to repeat that strategy with Wemby, Fox, and Harper, which feels like a contending core for the long run.
1. Cooper Flagg, Duke
The is the end game for all tanking teams, right? After some early-season squabbles for those less in tune with Flagg's greatness, he has emerged as the uncontested No. 1 prospect on just about every draft board in the country. Duke's freshman is producing at a historic rate, shouldering an insane usage rate at 6-foot-9 and shedding past labels of "connector" and "play-finisher."
Flagg is still excellent without the ball in his hands, to be clear, but the Blue Devils made it a point to empower Flagg to the fullest possible extent this season. The results are evident in the win column, with Duke emerging as arguably the best team in the country. Flagg went through some growing pains out of the gate, but he has come into his own as a legitimate three-level scorer and playmaking fulcrum these past few months. He's leveraging his size and strength to exploit mismatches, he's moving effortlessly into pull-up jumpers, and he's slinging dimes that few 6-foot-9 forwards in the NBA can replicate.
All that, and Flagg remains arguably the best defensive prospect in the draft. He has not been the all-world stopper folks expected coming into Duke, but Flagg's versatility and help-side instincts are elite. He's a tremendous roamer, with the length to impact shots at the rim and the mobility to cover immense swathes of the court on the defensive back line. Few No. 1 prospects in recent memory play harder than Flagg. He's competitive as hell and he has pretty much every tool at his disposal. Pairing him with Wemby might break the NBA.