SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 The San Antonio Spurs selected Rutgers point guard Dylan Harper with the second pick in the NBA draft on Wednesday night, adding even more youth to a promising roster led by All-Stars Victor Wembanyama and De\u2019Aaron Fox.<\/p>\n
San Antonio also added Carter Bryant, a 6-foot-7 wing from Arizona, with the 14th selection.<\/p>\n
Harper and Carter join a team that also includes rookie of the year Stephon Castle and veterans in Harrison Barnes, Jeremy Sochan, Devin Vassell and Keldon Johnson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you play with a bunch of great players, it just brings the best out of you,\u201d Harper said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got a great core over there. I\u2019m just ready to get in there and make an impact any way I can with those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harper was regarded as the second-best prospect available behind Duke\u2019s Cooper Flagg, who was selected first by the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n
Wembanyama and Castle won back-to-back rookie of the year honors for San Antonio. In Harper, the Spurs believe they have another rookie who can have an immediate impact.<\/p>\n
The son of five-time NBA champion Ron Harper of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, Harper averaged 19.4, 4.0 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.4 steals in his lone season at Rutgers.<\/p>\n
Harper joins a backcourt that already has point guards in Fox and Castle, but the Spurs had no hesitation selecting the 6-foot-6 guard.<\/p>\n
Harper said he can easily fit his game into a lineup alongside Fox and Castle in what has become something of a positionless league. He was also eager to get on the court with the 7-foot-3 Wembanyama, who missed the final 30 games of the season with a blood clot in his right shoulder.<\/p>\n
(He is eager to play alongside) all the guys, but I think Stephon Castle is a big one, obviously besides Wemby,\u201d Harper said. \u201cStephon Castle, De\u2019Aaron Fox. When you play with such good players, it just elevates your game. When you\u2019ve got that many ball handlers on the court, you can really space the court out. It makes the game so much easier for everyone else. Just having the opportunity to be on the floor with all of them is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
San Antonio fans have already embraced Harper, with his mural being unveiled this week by the same restaurant that painted Wembanyama\u2019s image months before the Spurs were awarded the No. 1 pick in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just very surreal,\u201d said Harper, who saw the painting on Instagram.<\/p>\n
Harper received a raucous reception from a few thousand fans who watched the NBA draft on a big screen at the Spurs practice facility.<\/p>\n
Bryant averaged 6.5 points and 4.1 rebounds and shot 37% on 3-pointers in his lone season with Arizona. San Antonio acquired the 14th selection as part of a 2022 trade with Atlanta that sent Dejounte Murry to the Hawks.<\/p>\n
The Spurs also have the 38th selection in the second round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 The San Antonio Spurs selected Rutgers point guard Dylan Harper with the second pick…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,11433,7200,12549,2629,14969,7202,7203,7199,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,4714],"class_list":{"0":"post-15294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-carter-bryant","10":"tag-deaaron-fox","11":"tag-dylan-harper","12":"tag-nba-draft","13":"tag-rookie-of-the-year","14":"tag-san-antonio","15":"tag-sanantonio","16":"tag-spurs","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-tx","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa","25":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114747668727549294","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}