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BROOKLYN, NY – JUNE 23: The San Antonio Spurs on the clock during the 2026 NBA Draft – Round One on June 23, 2026 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this ph <\/p>\n
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The San Antonio Spurs held the 20th pick in the 2-26 NBA Draft and used it to select Kentucky forward-center Jayden Quaintance on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The pick gives the Spurs one of the draft\u2019s highest-upside frontcourt prospects to pair with a young core that just made it to the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
Quaintance is a 6-foot-9, 253-pound big man who spent his freshman season at Arizona State before transferring to Kentucky. The former five-star recruit entered the draft despite having his college career interrupted by knee injuries that limited his playing time over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n
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LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY – JANUARY 07: Jayden Quaintance #21 of the Kentucky Wildcats looks on in the first half against the Missouri Tigers at Rupp Arena on January 07, 2026 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Dylan Buell\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n
Despite the injury concerns, Quaintance remained a coveted prospect because of his size, athleticism and defensive potential. Appearing in just four games for Kentucky during the 2025-26 season, the big man continued recovering from a torn ACL suffered during his freshman year. Even with the limited sample size, NBA teams remained intrigued by his physical tools and developmental potential.<\/p>\n
Scouts have praised his shot-blocking ability, rebounding and versatility around the basket, viewing him as a player with significant long-term upside if he remains healthy.<\/p>\n
What’s next:<\/p>\n
The Spurs are coming off a return to an NBA Finals appearance behind MVP runner-up Victor Wembanyama. To add another young frontcourt talent to a roster built around length and defensive versatility, gives San Antonio a developmental prospect who could eventually provide rim protection, rebounding and interior scoring alongside the franchise centerpiece.<\/p>\n
The Source: Information in this article was provided from live coverage of the 2026 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n
NBA<\/a>San Antonio<\/a>College Basketball<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article BROOKLYN, NY – JUNE 23: The San Antonio Spurs on the clock during the 2026 NBA Draft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[698,3080,29183,223,82,84,83,216,393],"class_list":["post-348001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-bexar-county","tag-nba","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}