The San Antonio Spurs won't need much deliberation to select French phenom Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 pick in Thursday's NBA Draft. The franchise's contingent in Chicago quite literally rejoiced when May's draft lottery awarded the Spurs with the top selection and the chance to land a prospect who could shoulder a generation like Tim Duncan did for San Antonio back in 1997.
Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul watches from the bench during the second half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball Western Conference semifinal series against the Denver Nuggets, Thursday, May 11, 2023, in Phoenix. The Nuggets eliminated the Sun in their 125-100 win. The San Antonio Spurs won’t need much deliberation to select French phenom Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft.
But is San Antonio truly a possibility for Paul? It will have to spend that money somehow. Another facet of the new CBA will mandate all teams reach the season’s salary cap floor — 90% of the overall budget — prior to training camp.
The Celtics have quite an obvious roster crunch in their backcourt, with four players in Brogdon, Marcus Smart, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard who could rarely all find consistent minutes this season. Boston is considered active in predraft trade talks by rival front offices —— and the Celtics are evaluating trade avenues to upgrade a thinner frontcourt, league sources told Yahoo Sports, and could very well lose a valuable piece in Grant Williams as a restricted free agent this summer.
Like this framework, much of the NBA’s impending trade activity will depend on which players are actually left on the board come draft night, as there’s quite a bit of uncertainty among decision-makers about where prospects will land following the top three selections. All it takes, for example, is Michigan guard Kobe Bufkin and Wembanyama’s Metropolitans 92 teammate Bilal Coulibaly jumping into the top 10 to leave another team’s higher-rated player on the board when the Mavericks’ pick arrives.
One player believed to be on the Hawks’ radar of potential trade targets is Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, sources said, and Toronto marks another team front offices are closely monitoring for trade activity. Similar to the team’s position leading up to the trade deadline, the Raptors are said to still be deliberating various pathways to proceed with their roster.
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