Rookies Jayden Quaintance, Tarris Reed Jr. Target One of the Spurs' Biggest Playoff Weaknesses

After the San Antonio Spurs drafted Victor Wembanyama with the first overall pick of the 2023 NBA Draft, many expected them to climb into championship contention, but few expected them to get there as quickly as they have.

In Wembanyama's third season, San Antonio just completed one of the most remarkable turnarounds in recent NBA history, jumping from 34 wins to 62 and the West's No. 2 seed with Stephon Castle, De'Aaron Fox, Devin Vassell, Dylan Harper and Keldon Johnson all making key contributions.

Despite their lack of playoff experience, the Spurs beat the Portland Trail Blazers and the Minnesota Timberwolves before outlasting the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in a classic seven-game series, as Wembanyama got the best of back-to-back reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Spurs then entered the NBA Finals as favorites, however they fell to the New York Knicks in five games after a series of collapses, including a blown 29-point lead in Game 4.

Of the limitations that held San Antonio back, its lack of big man depth behind Wembanyama stuck out as one of the loudest. While Luke Kornet made his fair share of plays, his contributions simply were not great enough to withstand the absence of Wembanyama's defensive versatility and floor-bending scoring in his minutes. For example, in the NBA Finals, the Spurs outscored the Knicks by eight points in Wembanyama’s minutes, while they lost Kornet’s minutes by 22 points.

Even though lineups without the 7-foot-4 Frenchman will always drop off, San Antonio needed to fortify its backup big options this off-season, so it used the NBA Draft to add a wide array of skills to its big man rotation by selecting Jayden Quaintance with the No. 20 pick and Tarris Reed Jr. with the No. 26 pick through a trade with the Denver Nuggets.

Jayden Quaintance and Tarris Reed Jr. Bring Contrasting Strengths Behind Wembanyama

After recently turning 19 years old, Quaintance joins San Antonio as a 6-foot-9 big man with a wingspan of 7-foot-5.25. He averaged 9.4 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game as a freshman at Arizona State before knee injuries limited him to four games at Kentucky and forced another surgery in July. On the other hand, Reed Jr., a 23-year-old St. Louis native, measured 6-foot-9.75 with a 7-foot-4.25 wingspan and averaged 14.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game as a UConn senior.

Quaintance is an athletic and versatile big with sky-high defensive potential as his length and mobility let him protect the rim and switch onto smaller players. With Quaintance as Wembanyama’s backup once healthy, San Antonio will be able to maintain the rim protection and versatile pick-and-roll coverage that it relies on in its best lineups. However, his offense remains a work in progress as he was not able to establish his scoring from any level of the court in college, including a subpar mark of 45.2% from the free throw line.

Conversely, Reed Jr. thrives more as a play finisher who uses his strength and soft touch to score in the paint and low post, and he controls the glass while holding up around the rim. As opposed to Quaintance, who is younger and brings dominant talent on one side of the floor, the former UConn Husky brings a strong and steady interior presence on both ends of the floor.

However, Reed Jr. will need to become a far more versatile scorer to lift the ceiling of his overall offensive impact, and his overall defensive projection remains a larger question as he will have to prove he has the quickness to guard in space at the NBA level.

Together, these two rookies bring versatile skills to both ends, with Quaintance contributing more on defense and Reed Jr. more on offense. However, the question is whether either can put both sides of the ball together well enough to become a viable playoff backup behind Wembanyama.

That could take a few years, or their skill sets could grow to complement each other in a unique way, but regardless, their development is key to fixing one of San Antonio's most impactful postseason limitations.

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