The San Antonio Spurs are going to be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come.
The Spurs already employ the NBA’s two most recent Rookie of the Year winners, Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle, and just might turn this into a three-peat after drafting Dylan Harper second overall in the 2025 draft.
Harper, a guard out of Rutgers University, is a devastating scorer who has earned comparisons to NBA All-Stars Jalen Brunson and Cade Cunningham. Like Brunson, he is left-handed and uses an elite toolkit of moves to score his points while his size as a point guard and ability to control the tempo of a game is reminiscent of Cunningham.
During his lone collegiate season, he averaged 19.4 points on 48.4% field goal shooting, 4.6 rebounds, and four assists over 29 games. Rutgers struggled despite having two top-five picks in this year’s draft–Harper and Ace Bailey–though that was more indicative of their supporting cast more than anything else.
The pair of Harper and Castle are expected to become San Antonio’s backcourt for at least the next decade. This puts their prized midseason acquisition—one-time NBA All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox—in a tricky situation. The size of both Harper and Castle, who both stand at 6’6, could theoretically make three-guard line-ups with the 6’3 Fox work.
However, Fox’s inability to play alongside another point guard in Tyrese Haliburton during their time together with the Sacramento Kings grows more notorious by the day. This makes it more likely than not that he is not long for this team. It would be surprising if Fox is not dealt by the midseason trade deadline at the latest, especially when considering the Spurs’ need to trade for better frontcourt partners for Wembanyama.
The 19-year-old Harper—who is the son of five-time NBA champion Ron Harper and Filipino Maria Pizarro—should be handed the keys of San Antonio’s offense from day one. While this is a challenging task, early signs suggest that he has maturity beyond his years—something that should serve him well as he navigates the steep learning curve that comes with being a lead guard in the NBA.
With Wembanyama, Castle, and now Harper, it feels like only a matter of time before the Spurs return to championship contention. The Oklahoma City Thunder just showed that a young core can win it all with key players still on rookie deals—and San Antonio will be eager to prove that lightning can, in fact, strike twice. The blueprint to build a young contender is already there and the only thing left for San Antonio is to make it their own.
