The Spurs Just Drafted Kawhi 2.0

The Spurs Just Drafted Kawhi 2.0

With the 15th pick in the 2011 NBA draft, the Indiana Pacers select Kawi Leonard. The fans of San Antonio know how great you are and now the whole world does. You are the 2014 Bill Russell MVP. [Applause] A little over a decade ago, the Spurs made the draft day move to get their hands on the 15th overall pick and Kawhi Leonard. This year in 2025 with pick 14, they just got him again. Look, with the summer league overreactions, it seems like almost everything about rookies right now is clickbait on the internet. But I mean this with 100% certainty that the legacy paved by Kawhi Leonard that began in San Antonio, it’s about to be repeated by a 19-year-old raw talent out of Arizona named Carter Bryant. And I’m going to explain why. I believe that a young Kawhi Leonard was one of the most intuitively gifted defenders in NBA history. He was quiet, not moving too fast, but making the most efficient moves and stalking the ball, giving pressure the entire possession, and absolutely denying plays with his unreal length and hand size for his height. And when I watch Carter Bryant, what he lacks in intuition with his shot selection offensively and his tunnel vision ball chasing on certain defensive possessions, he makes up for it 10fold with the hustle and motor that is on par with guys like prime Ben Wallace and prime Giannis. You think I’m exaggerating? Listen to this kid caught a Bryant. You can’t teach guys to run fast and jump high and you can’t teach motor. This kid caught a Bryant. He reminds me of Giannis. Now, of course, there are flaws to Brian’s game, and I’m about to break those down, too, in a bit, but the raw potential this kid has is some of the most upside in one of the most already stacked draft classes in recent history. We could be looking back 10 years and multiple championships down the line for the Spurs and wonder to ourselves, how the hell did the Spurs get away with an allNBA guard and an alldefensive first team defender in just one draft? And I’m about to give you that answer. The only question left is will Carter Bryant have enough time to mold his game around the current Spurs core? Will he get the development that he needs on a championship contending team? Will the two windows line up? And how long will it be until we see a young, deep team of defensive dogs make their way into dynasty conversations? It could be an overreaction, but let’s not forget who just won the NBA Finals with that same formula. And if you ask me, if I trust any franchise to build a perennial contender around an MVP level talent, I trust the San Antonio Spurs. And they’ve made all the right decisions so far. Real quick before we get into things though, I want to ask you all to subscribe and like this video. We’re currently stuck at 8,500 subscribers and I want to get to 10K before the end of the summer. So, if we could do that, I would greatly appreciate it. I have got my biggest video ever coming out later this month. And also, I respond to every comment. So, comment your feedback and I’ll respond. All right, without further ado, let’s get into things. Within just a few summer league games, while his averages on offense have been lackluster and his shooting has still been great, similar to at Arizona, Carter Bryant has shocked the world by showing just how much of a pest he is defensively. This man stands at 68, an inch taller than Kawawaii. By the way, with an agility to length ratio and shot blocking dexterity that I can only compare to, well, his teammate Victor Webbeyama, just take this play against the Mavericks. He immediately fights past a screen, provides pressure from multiple angles, and has the lateral quickness to recover from it. and not get blown by. Fights around another screen, forces a contested pass once, twice, and three times in a row. And when he sets up his paint pressure, his man is flopping. And he doesn’t just do his job, he does everyone else’s. He looks backside, sees a man is covered, and so he works up and slides for his teammates, gets euroed, and then turns heel and swats it. That was eight impactful, intuitive defensive moves in literally 13 seconds. And this man is 19 years old. Carter Bryant is playing defense that would earn him a starting role in the NBA Finals. You don’t believe me? Watch this clip from last year’s NBA Finals. We constantly saw throughout the entire series that athleticism didn’t matter as much as decision-making and pattern recognition when being disciplined on these screens, especially from guys like Case Wallace. The Pacer sets that hurt OKC the most were the ones from the half court where screens and eye candy could get defenders off their tracks and screw up their defensive sets. OKC had constant struggles from young guys in fighting past screens, switching under pressure, staying aggressive, and identifying those tricky offball movements and cuts that let the Pacers hand down their offensive sets whenever they wanted to. They were simply a young team making young team mistakes by being undisiplined on screens and man coverage. And that’s fine. It’s impossible to teach a young player the importance of defensive discipline and hustle. That is unless they’ve already got it mastered by the time they’re 19. I’m sure you’ve seen this clip of Carter Bryant fighting through a bunch of screens and then having his incredible block. But what is much more impressive to me than this monumental display of athleticism, which is damn impressive by the way, is the unreal ability to see the game like a quarterback that he has. Right as the play starts, he’s pitted in the corner, which isn’t optimal for someone of his size. But watch as he recognizes the offense beginning their motion from this guy waving his hand and literally acts before his man does to the call, allowing him to stay impossibly tight to his hip and slide easily under the screen. But he doesn’t just stop by getting back on his man. No, he’s doing everything out here. He gets right back on his man and then immediately turns his eyes to the ball handler to get more information in which he realizes, “Wait, I just got screened twice and I’m blowing up this set. This guy’s looking to reset from the half court offense and is going to pass the ball to initiate that to the big. So, I’m going to fight opposite of my man knowing that my teammate is there for the switch and get ahead of the game again for an easy swap. I’m not even sure Carter Bryant could break down what he’s thinking in this moment. This man just has one of the strongest subconscious minds of basketball I have seen from a rookie. And then when he gets back from his SWAT, he’s in a bad position to fight under the screen because that would allow the big man to exploit a 2v1 pick and roll on his teammates. So he immediately waits for the guard to pull around and then kill the pick and roll threat before squeezing over top of the big. The center here has a chance to box him out, but the center is tired from a very long play, a very long set. Meanwhile, Bryant, who just ran three times as much, three times as long and faster. He’s going to turn on the Jets yet again and get this insane block. This is genuine art on a basketball court. No exaggeration. There is literally no one with this robotic level of play recognition and the quickness to act on it at this size except for of course Kawhi Leonard. There is so much media presence and popularity towards the offensive supercomputers of the basketball world like Joic and Luca. And that’s because they’re the most entertaining games to watch and dissect. But ladies and gentlemen, I think that Carter Bryant could change the landscape of the game by being not only a defensive supercomput, but one with a highlight reel level of athleticism. I am over the moon with excitement to watch this man’s career develop, but the one problem with calling him Kawawaii 2.0 is of course, well, half of the game, offense. I’m not saying Kawhai was a great facilitator out of the box in San Antonio. But very quickly, he became a reliable threat from mid-range and eventually blossomed in the mid2010s to being a borderline offensive superstar. Bryant does not have this level of offensive dominance in his cards. Really, while he might never become an operator, this man looks to become one of the most ferociously dangerous supplementary championship pieces of all time. Honestly, his jump shot is developing so well to the point where he could easily be the quintessential 3 and D wing on a championship team. His three-point shot looks beautiful and he has such great confidence already. On top of that, he is a dangerous lob threat with just as much offensive IQ as defensive IQ. He knows exactly when to get into lob range. And when you pair that with Dylan Harper, oh my goodness, he is a lob threat. And Castle is good around the rim and Fox is good around the rim and Harper is good around the rim and Webbby is literally the size of the rim. Dylan Harper will be in playmaking heaven and defenses will be in hell trying to decipher which giant is going to hang over their head next. And Bryant is the floor spacing that this team has desperately needed. On top of that, it is floor spacing that does not come at a cost. He’s not a shooter that can’t play defense like so many other prospects. He’s a shooter that is literally the best defender of his class almost. And while other teams are going to have hell trying to defend the Spurs, they’re going to have to get past two incredibly ferocious guards on defense and then get past one of the most tenacious, lengthy wings in basketball who was smart as at only 19. And then they got to finish over the tallest player in the league who was arguably the best defender on planet Earth. Yes, their shooting is a concern in certain rotations as of now. Yes, I hate Carter Bryant’s middle schoolesque shot selection that I’ve seen in summer league. They’ve got a crowded backcourt, but man, do I look at this Spurs team and think to myself, 3 years from now, I can’t see a single team beating them in a sevengame series. OKC just set the precedent. When you have an MVP level talent and supply it with young, scrappy defenders that are cheap and retainable, you’re going to be a dynasty level threat in this league. And now the San Antonio Spurs, they’re on track to making it back there and soon. Thank you all for watching and remember to subscribe. It’s free. [Music]

Carter Bryant in a San Antonio Spurs uniform might be the next Kawhi Leonard. Here’s what he does best, here’s what he has to work on, and here’s what to expect from the future of the wildcat in San Antonio.
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