NBA Mock Draft: 4 Teams that will likely embrace tanking during 2023-24 season
San Antonio Spurs
The winners of last year’s NBA tanking marathon, the San Antonio Spurs, will likely be back on the tanking watch list at least to start the season. This is not to say that the Spurs are going to finish with one of the NBA’s worst records again, but it wouldn’t entirely be surprising if they did. San Antonio is likely going to play it safe and slow with Victor Wembanyama and that could open the door for the Spurs to struggle out of the gate.
Depending on how some of their other young players continue to develop, the Spurs could be good. But they could also struggle as they begin to rely more and more on their young talent. If Wemby is good and dominant right away, this won’t be the case. This has more to do with the unknown that Wemby is and with how head coach Gregg Popovich generally uses rookies.
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Heading into the season, the Spurs are one of those teams that could emerge as a darkhorse threat to make the Play-In Tournament in the Western Conference. However, on the other hand, it also wouldn’t be all that surprising if they entered the 2024 NBA Draft with a top 5 pick again.