The San Antonio Spurs may have been a model franchise over most of the last two decades, but their draft history since coming to the NBA from the ABA in 1976 has been spotty at times.
How spotty? They’ve used first-round picks on players such as Frankie Sanders, Cory Alexander and Reggie Johnson … none of whom show up on this list of the worst five picks for the franchise over that time.
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Once upon a time, they had the draft rights to players such as Leandro Barbosa and John Salmons, but gave those up in deals that didn’t quite turn out as well as planned.
Barbosa (28th overall in 2003) was traded for a future draft pick, which was in turn traded in a deal that brought Nazr Mohammed and Jamison Brewer—who never played a game for San Antonio—to the Spurs.
Salmons, meanwhile, was chosen 26th overall in 2002 and was dealt to the Philadelphia 76ers for Speedy Claxton.
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Whoops.
The list that follows includes only time spent with the Spurs, so players who did go on to have solid careers elsewhere may appear here.
In the case of players traded on draft night after being taken by the Spurs, their grade was determined by the sum total of the contributions of the players traded for.
One final caveat—the determination is based on the player’s service with the team from the time of being drafted until leaving the franchise. So should a player come back later in his career, that subsequent stint will not be included for consideration.
And here are the five worst first-round picks for the San Antonio Spurs since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976:
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