The Spurs added Tobias Harris. How much better do you think he makes them, and what role do you see him filling?
Marilyn Dubinski: It’s hard to raise the ceiling that much on a Finals team that only lost due to their own mistakes, but that’s exactly what Harris can help do: bring a veteran presence with a solid game on both sides who won’t make many mistakes. At this point, it’s tough to say if he or Julian Champagnie will start, and it may come down to a training camp battle or if it’s something as simple as where Champagnie’s outside shooting is more needed: with the starters or second unit.
Mark Barrington: I think he makes the team better by adding more veteran leadership and another scorer and tenacious defender. He could end up starting over Julian Champagnie, but I still think the trio of him, Vassell, and Julian all get about the same amount of minutes. Even though he’s likely a starter, the biggest impact will be on the team’s depth where they don’t have a huge fall-off in talent when one of the starters has to sit.
Bill Huan: Harris gives the Spurs another starting-calibre player, which would be the team’s seventh, assuming Harper comes off the bench again. For a squad that ran out of bodies in the finals (especially at the forward position), this is a vital addition that also provides a reliable veteran presence to a very young team. I do worry about a potential dropoff given that he’s almost exactly the same age as Barnes, and we all saw what happened to HB last year. Still, Harris gives the Spurs another reliable body, and playing on a loaded team will hopefully keep him fresh for the postseason.
Devon Birdsong: Any time you can add an efficient shooter and scorer to a Finals team, it’s going to make them better. And Harris is far more efficient than some might have you believe. For instance, his Player Efficiency Rating was higher than Devin Vassell’s last season, and their True Shooting Percentages were identical. (In fact, some of his advanced defensive stats were also better) I see Harris as taking on Harrison Barnes’ role of the last two seasons, with Barnes now migrating to ‘break glass in case of emergency’ status, but I think there’s a real question of whether he or Champagnie will start. My guess is that Julian will, because the bench could use a little more scoring punch outside of Keldon Johnson and Dylan Harper, but considering how much San Antonio’s matchup weakness at power forward popped up in the postseason, I have a sneaking suspicion that we’ll see them both get time with the starting unit throughout the season. They’ll need Harris to have a certain degree of familiarity with the starters come playoff time, and Julian has been both seamless and selfless in moving back and forth between the two. I’ve been assured by Spurs Twitter experts that that’s not something that NBA teams do during the regular season, though, so I guess all those years of Popovich experimenting with lineups was just a hallucination on my part. Ça alors!
Jeje Gomez: I don’t think he raises their ceiling much, but he should help raise their floor. Harris has flaws, but he is a veteran who knows how to play, is durable, and can get a bucket when everything else fails. The Spurs needed guys that fit that mold last season, especially when Barnes started to struggle. As for his role, it would probably be best to bring him off the bench to prevent opponents from putting their center on Harris, like they used to do with Barnes. Harris is a decent shooter but not a knockdown guy, so that makes him an awkward fit for the starters. Still, there could be games where he’s the better option, and it wouldn’t be the worst idea to give him Julian Champagnie’s spot in those matchups.
The rookies that suited up had some good moments in Summer League. Do you expect any of them to contribute in 2026/27?
Dubinski: Tarris Reed stands the best chance, especially since Victor Wembanyama and Luke Kornet were two of their more injury-prone players last season. I don’t think the two-way players will play much, if any role (which has been the case the last couple of seasons now), and while Jayden Quiantance will hopefully be ready to start playing at some point this season, I wouldn’t expect him to truly have a role until next season.
Barrington: Tarris Reed will probably spend most of the first half of the season in Austin, but he could be a big part of the rotation after the All-Star break. Maliq Brown and Ja’Kobi Gillespie look more like projects to me, and we will have to see how well they do in Austin to see if they can contribute in San Antonio. If they do make it to the regular rotation, I don’t think it happens this season.
Huan: Like everyone else said, I expect Reed to get some developmental run but I’d be floored if he saw any meaningful minutes in the postseason (barring injuries). I’m not sure if he’ll be ready to be the team’s third big by then, but he’ll surely be better than Plumlee and Biyombo, right…??? I think we should keep our expectations relatively low, but Reed’s development this season should still be a major storyline given that Kornet’s on a short-term deal and the Spurs will want to get younger and cheaper at the backup centre spot soon.
Birdsong: Reed is definitely in line to find some minutes at some point, if for no other reason than a history of both Wemby and Luke Kornet missing time, but out of players who suited up for Summer League, Carter Bryant is the easy choice. The real question is what his minutes will end up looking like with Harris added to the forward rotation. Someone is going to have to take a step back, but the Spurs also have to figure out a way to continue to develop a player who contributed in the postseason. For me, this is the 2nd biggest roster question for the season after how the guard minutes will be allocated.
Gomez: The Spurs will have trouble giving everyone minutes and touches even without considering the rookies, so I doubt any will get a regular role. Reed is likely going to be the one that gets the most playing time of the four, because he has an NBA-ready body and knows his strengths and weaknesses. I expect him to at least get a shot at minutes when one of Wembanyama or Kornet misses games, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Carter Bryant out there as a small-ball center while Reed sits. Regardless of their roles this year, the most important factor will be their development. San Antonio will need cheap role players when the roster gets more expensive, so if spending time in Austin is the best way to get the rookies ready for the future, that’s where they should be.
As the roster stands right now, who do you think will start and who do you think won’t be part of the rotation to start the season?
Dubinski: I think the rotation will be basically identical to last season, with Harris replacing Barnes in the top 10 rotation, and then it’s just a matter of whether he or Champagnie starts. There may also be more minutes for Carter Bryant, perhaps at Keldon Johnson’s expense, which absolutely pains me to say, but at some point they’re going to have to determine if he’s a keeper past this season or if Bryant can make him expendable. (Just typing that about KJ crushes my soul!)
Barrington: As I mentioned above, I think that Tobias Harris starts over Julian, but that Champagnie will end up playing about the same number of minutes as the starters. Dylan Harper is definitely a starter-level talent, but I think he plays the Manu role again this year, coming off the bench while also getting a spot in the finishing lineups in big games. De’Aaron Fox had a bad playoff series against the Knicks, but the team is betting on a resurgence this year as he begins the season fully healthy for the first time in a few years, and he’s going to start.
Carter Bryant will be a bigger part of the rotation as an undersized center when the Spurs are playing a smallball lineup. It will surprise no one that I think that Harrison Barnes will have a reduced role this season, and that Jordan McLaughlin will only play spot minutes when needed as an injury replacement or to finish out games where the score isn’t close. I think the acquisition of Tarris Reed allows the Spurs to experiment more with a French Vanilla lineup with both Kornet and Wemby out on the court at the same time, but that won’t happen until later in the season.
Huan: I agree with everything Marilyn said, although I’m not as big of a KJ stan as she is (please don’t come after me!!). The big question remaining is who starts between Champagnie and Harris, given that it sounds like Harper is “open” (or whatever the terminology was) to coming off the bench again. When the offseason first opened, I really thought that the end game would be starting all three guards, but if Harper is ok with being their 6th man for one more year, then the Spurs will need to take advantage.
Birdsong: Barnes is almost definitely going to be out of the rotation by default, but I’m also curious to see how the minutes for Luke Kornet end up playing out with the addition of Harris. The Spurs probably want to find time for Bryant, so I wonder if Kornet’s minutes end up resembling something more like his allocation in the postseason (13 mins) rather than last year’s regular season (21 minutes) if Harris or Bryant need those extra eight minutes. The one thing about a team being this deep is the complications it creates in terms of playing time. PTR staff writer (and former college coach) Lee Dresie once wrote a piece on minutes allocation that I think about at least a dozen times each season, and I think figuring that balance out will be no small challenge for Mitch and Co. (though injuries may help them make some choices easier)
Gomez: I think Champagnie will continue to start unless the lineup that destroyed opponents last season regresses. That leaves some awkward fits off the bench, as Harris, Keldon Johnson, Carter Bryant, and Harrison Barnes, who are all power forwards, would likely have to play in lineups together. I’m assuming Barnes doesn’t get minutes and Harper, Harris, Johnson, and Kornet are the top four bench guys in terms of playing time, with some Bryant sprinkled in. Now, if Bryant’s shot improves, I can easily see him leapfrogging Johnson in the depth chart, which would bring about some uncomfortable questions about KJ’s future. But we’ll worry about that when/if it happens.
