I'll be honest: Going through numerous scouting reports over the past weeks, I am now down to 5 players I would like to see the Spurs draft this year. In no particular order these are: Castle, C. Williams, Carter, Topic, Clingan (I know...).

I am all for the Spurs to continue the slow and steady development process instead of aquiring (fringe) star players now (exceptions: Dejounte Murray and Derrick White haha). Build a competitive roster, yes, but for me this means: build a team that plays hard and competes in every game. I don't care if eventually the Spurs make the playoffs or the play-in tournament next season. By the end of next season, I just want the team to have learned to play better together, and individually the players to have improved aspects of their game or to have added facets to it, to have become a little wiser ("make more mistakes faster!"). Use this and the next off-season to draft high, take swings at promising raw projects if you like, give the young players space and time to develop, experiment, make mistakes (learning opportunities), get to know each other better on the court. Later, perhaps in 3 years, with a solid foundation of experience and familiarity, the Spurs won't be able to give young talents as much playing time and develop them with the same patience. It'll be the time to bring in plug-and-play contributors, a star. By then, rookies they draft will likely have to be more NBA ready and be valued more as cost-controlled, inexpensive role/energy/specialist players.

So, because I haven't been able to narrow my above list of five prospects down to two, I am creating trade ideas how the Spurs can get at least one more lottery pick this year. My first thought experiment (which I posted a few weeks ago), a 3-team-trade, had the Spurs receiving the Blazers' #7 (Blazers would get Atlanta's #1, the Hawks a number of young, solid win-now / high-end role players under long-term contracts).

Here is a trade idea for the Kings' #13, in case any of the 5 players mentioned above is still available at #13. I didn't follow the Kings last season, just read postseason reports, so apologies for my shallow projection of their roster situation/needs. I chose to send them Branham, because he is a talented young, offensively gifted guard with good size (on a rookie-scale-contract) who can help with scoring off the bench. At 21 years of age, he has still plenty of room to develop. (Could the Kings get anyone in his age with better shot creation at #13 this year?). Depending of how much the Kings value Davion Mitchell, I could also see the SA sending Tre Jones to SAC as a high quality floor general backup for Fox. Or maybe both Branham and Jones? Would Jones alone be too much here? Hm. Idk

Vezenkov's first NBA season was disappointing, but previously he had a great career in Europe, is smart, can shoot the ball. Perhaps he benefits from a change of scenery, and the Spurs can carve out a role for him as a stretch PF.