Five players who can improve the San Antonio Spurs’ defense in the 2020 NBA Draft

Regaining a defensive identity will be critical for the San Antonio Spurs in the 2020 NBA Draft and this selection of players would help them improve.

Defense clearly wasn’t the forte of the 2019-20 San Antonio Spurs, which is extremely uncharacteristic. This season, they posted their worst defensive rating in the Gregg Popovich era, effectively counteracting years of work established by teams that came long before this one. However, the team has a chance to improve on that in the 2020 NBA Draft in November.

Being that this is their highest pick since Tim Duncan way back when, the San Antonio Spurs have an opportunity to pick a franchise-altering player. With this NBA Draft selection, the franchise can get back to establishing its defensive identity. This will help the team transition into a new era in which the young core takes on better habits and gets into a groove as one cohesive unit.

Teams cannot succeed on defense without some semblance of unity and this past season, the Spurs didn’t exemplify that well. There were clear deficiencies in rebounding, forcing turnovers and limiting perimeter shooters — Much of which was rectified during the Orlando restart. However, the team needs to take steps toward being a more reliable defensive group as a whole between pretty much every position.

The players listed in this group seem to be the best in their NBA Draft class. Some are more attainable than others, but after failing to continue the playoff streak, all bets are off. The team should be willing to move around in the draft, even if it means trading a piece with the pick to jump up or even trade back into the late first round.

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