Spurs Draft Recap

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With the offseason officially under way with the 2008 SSBL Draft, many teams were looking at trying to move into the lottery to pick up some of the big names available in the draft. Many around the league were exploring options to move up in the draft to acquire the rights to future superstars such as Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose. However, the San Antonio Spurs were on of the teams sitting back and hoped to acquire more young talent with their two draft picks late in the first round. As the draft progressed and names continued to come off the board in the draft room, San Antonio found themselves in an interesting position as they were announced to be on the clock at pick 24. Out of all the potential names complied by the team's front office (many of them unlikely to get close but simply for numbers references), the Spurs had two draft selections to make and the opportunity to select between four different players, all of whom the team believe could be contributors down the road.

With the 24th selection in the draft, the team decided to go with Semih Erdin, a 7'1" post player that is currently overseas in Turkey. At the time the selection was made, the Spurs were dealing with a roster space issue and by drafting Erdin (the team also considered another overseas player in Ante Tomic) the franchise has the opportunity to keep him overseas for two seasons to see how he is able to improve his game. In breaking down Erdin's game, he is able to use his size at 7'1"/240 pounds to be a solid rebounder. However, scouts agree that the rest of Erdin's game is pretty raw and will need some developing and this is something that San Antonio decided to take a gamble on. According to some within the front office, the worst case scenario is that when Erdin finally comes over from Turkey at the age of 24 that he will be a minimal bench player on a rookie contract. However, San Antonio is hoping that he will continue to improve his game and when he comes over that he can be a productive player coming off the bench or possibly even becoming the team's starting power forward following the expiring contract of recently acquired Kenyon Martin.

Without any time to spare, the Spurs were back on the clock with the 25th selection and decided to keep with the European theme by drafting 22-year old Goran Dragic out of Slovenia. Some around the league, and even some that cover the team, may have some questions about this particular draft pick since this makes the third draft in a row where San Antonio has drafted a point guard (Marcus Williams, Mike Conley, and now Dragic). Even so, the Spurs are very interested in Dragic as a prospect as he comes into the league with the ability to hit the outside shot and the ability to do a little bit of everything. In addition, at 6'4"/200 pounds, Dragic possesses good size at the point guard position and could even find himself down the road playing a bit of shooting guard if needed. However, at this time the team expects to designate Dragic to the D-League for at least this season (along with last year's draft pick Martell Webster) with the hopes that Dragic can improve his ball handling skills along with his defense. If this is the case, look for Dragic to possibly earn a spot on the roster next year or even be groomed to take over a starting position in the event that current point guard Marcus Williams decides to leave via free agency or if the team believes he can become a shooting guard and perhaps explore options for the team's leading scorer last year, Vassilis Spanoulis. Either way, the Spurs are excited to add two more young talented players to their roster but hope they are around for the long-term to see how these recent draft picks develop.