Spurs' Victor Wembanyama Could Get His Boris Diaw in 2026 NBA Draft
It took the New York Knicks just five games to eliminate the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.
The Knicks first stole home-court advantage in Game 1 with a 105-95 win, then took a 2-0 series lead heading back to New York. The Spurs bounced back in Game 3 with a 115-111 win at Madison Square Garden, only to lose a thriller in Game 4 and then fall again in Game 5 back in San Antonio.
Game 4 saw the Spurs give up a 29-point lead to lose 107-106 on a final OG Anunoby tip-in, and Game 5 saw San Antonio lose a 16-point lead to fall 94-90. The Spurs led by double digits in all five Finals games, but walked away with just a single win.
After Game 5, head coach Mitch Johnson said, “We didn’t deserve to win the games … We weren’t ready to win an NBA championship. The better team won.”
Now, as New York eyes a championship parade, its first in 53 years, San Antonio sets its sights on the upcoming 2026 NBA draft, where they can load up with more talent to go on another run next year.
ESPN’s Jeremy Woo named a player who could perfectly complement what the Spurs have already built, Santa Clara’s star freshman Allen Graves, projecting him to fall No. 20 overall to the Spurs in his latest 2026 NBA Mock Draft.
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The playoffs exposed various problems for the Spurs, but one of them was the lack of another frontcourt piece who can stretch the floor next to Victor Wembanyama. Graves, a 6-foot-9 former point guard and Louisiana Mr. Basketball, is exactly that player.
As a freshman in 2025-26, Graves averaged 11.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.9 steals in just 22.6 minutes per game coming off the bench for the Broncos. He won WCC Freshman of the Year, WCC Sixth Man of the Year, and first-team All-WCC honors in the same season, a ridiculous triple crown for a first-year player.
Even more impressively, he shot 51.2% from the field, 41.3% from three, and an absurdly low 0.7 turnovers per game, while helping lead Santa Clara to their first NCAA Tournament in 30 years.
In the pre-draft process, he’s drawn comparisons to one name that really sticks out, Boris Diaw.
Diaw’s “Medium Ball” pairing next to Tim Duncan changed the course of the 2014 NBA Finals, giving San Antonio a floor-spacing, pass-first forward who made every system look better.
Over five seasons with the Spurs, Diaw shot better than 50% from the field and 37% from three while doing everything else, spacing the floor, attacking off the dribble, and making the players around him better in ways that never showed up in a box score.
Graves profiles almost identically for the next generation. He’s already caught scouts’ eyes for his “advanced ball skills” and high-IQ frontcourt play, the kind of point-forward versatility that makes modern offenses nearly impossible to guard.
Pair that alongside Wembanyama, another elite IQ, high-efficiency big, and San Antonio suddenly has a frontcourt duo with generational upside.
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This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 1:44 PM.