{"id":351120,"date":"2026-06-26T06:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T06:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/351120\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T06:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T06:30:14","slug":"san-antonio-spurs-introduce-their-2026-nba-draft-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/351120\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs introduce their 2026 NBA Draft picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 One day after the conclusion of the 2026 NBA Draft, the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> officially introduced their newest draft picks Thursday afternoon at the Victory Capital Performance Center.<\/p>\n

The four picks are already accustomed to pressure. All of them either played at college basketball blue bloods or were forces on teams who came mere heartbeats away from winning an NCAA championship.<\/p>\n

Nothing, however, can match the stress of joining a young team wanting more after losing to the New York Knicks in the 2026 NBA Finals. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what helped us win: going all the way to the national championship,\u201d Spurs rookie and ex-UConn center Tarris Reed Jr. said. \u201cI really had to embrace that (gritty) part of the game where you might not get a lot of credit for. … If that\u2019s what I got to do to win, sign me up. Ten out of 10, I\u2019ll do it every time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Defense rules draft nights<\/p>\n

The Spurs had a consistent theme running throughout its draft philosophy this year: defense, defense and more defense. <\/p>\n

Before the team traded up to acquire Reed at the No. 26 spot Tuesday night, San Antonio selected Kentucky\u2019s 6-foot-10 forward Jayden Quaintance with the 20th overall pick. <\/p>\n

Despite playing only four games with the Wildcats due to injury in 2025-26, he averaged 2.6 blocks per game in 2024-25 as a freshman at Arizona State. <\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a young player myself, I\u2019ll be able to relate to a lot of people on the team. It\u2019s going to be fun,\u201d Quaintance, who is 18, said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ll be able to fit in here really well.\u201d <\/p>\n

On Night 2 of the draft Wednesday, San Antonio addressed its backcourt for the first time by selecting Tennessee guard and SEC Newcomer of the Year Ja\u2019Kobi Gillespie with the 42nd pick.<\/p>\n

Gillespie, who is 6 feet tall, draws inspiration from another 6-foot guard: former Spur Chris Paul.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been the smallest player, so I think just growing up like that kind of got me ready to play at a higher level,\u201d Gillespie said. \u201cHaving heart. You\u2019ve got to be a little strong.\u201d <\/p>\n

Two picks later, the Spurs went looking for another intense defender. They landed on Maliq Brown, a Duke wingman who earned the Atlantic Coast Conference\u2019s Sixth Man of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards this past season. <\/p>\n

\u201cDefense is always where I\u2019ve hanged my hat at,\u201d Brown said Thursday. \u201cI\u2019ve been always paying attention to Spurs culture and the way they play basketball. They\u2019re a very gritty team. … I definitely can fit in with that.\u201d <\/p>\n

More San Antonio Spurs<\/a> coverage on KSAT: <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 One day after the conclusion of the 2026 NBA Draft, the San Antonio Spurs officially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[124307,108996,2755,14859,25232,3080,4471,82,84,83,1594,14847],"class_list":["post-351120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-2026-nba-draft","tag-brian-wright","tag-jakobi-gillespie","tag-jayden-quaintance","tag-maliq-brown","tag-nba","tag-northwest-side","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-spurs","tag-tarris-reed-jr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351120","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=351120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}