How joining a young Spurs roster will push former Notre Dame G Blake Wesley
Blake Wesley turned his head at his introductory press conference Saturday and saw two youthful faces like his. Two days earlier, the San Antonio Spurs spent first-round draft picks on the former Notre Dame guard and a pair of other one-and-done players. A team already brimming with youth added three more teenagers to its roster.
“We all just turned 19,” Wesley said, gazing down a dais at new teammates Jeremy Sochan and Malaki Branham. “A lot of young people on this team. A lot of development. We have to learn a lot.”
To put it lightly. Sochan and Branham don’t have driver’s licenses yet. They were 11 years old when the Spurs won their last NBA championship back in 2014.
All three were top-25 picks in Thursday’s NBA Draft, with Sochan at No. 9 followed by Branham (No. 20) and Wesley (No. 25). They’re the latest youth infusion into the Spurs roster. Last year’s Spurs first-round pick, Josh Primo, is still 19. Second-leading scorer and 2019 first-round pick Keldon Johnson is 22. Their 2020 first-rounder, Devin Vassell, is 21.
Oddly enough, Wesley begins his NBA career surrounded by players younger than his old Notre Dame teammates. The starting lineup in his final game with the Irish contained 23-year-old Prentiss Hubb, 22-year-old Dane Goodwin, 23-year-old Cormac Ryan and 22-year-old Paul Atkinson Jr. (who was one week away from turning 23). Two more 22-year-olds, Nate Laszewski and Trey Wertz, came off the bench.
Wesley had no problem cracking a senior-laden Notre Dame rotation as a freshman. Now, he’s part of a cadre of captivating youngsters looking to make their mark as professionals and prove worthy of second contracts. There are only so many rotation spots and minutes available for them. It’s an entirely new stratosphere of competition. Basketball is their entire focus. Their job. Their life. Off days are taken at one’s own risk.
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Wesley may be among teenagers and players barely old enough to buy their own drinks, but he’s aware they’re all professionals now in the world’s most skilled and competitive basketball league. If he needed a reminder, he found one when he and Branham went toe-to-toe during a Spurs pre-draft workout.
“That was my first time seeing Malaki,” Wesley said. “He can get to his spot, shoot it, get to the rim.”
So can all of Wesley’s new teammates and future opponents. Everyone is athletic and highly skilled. Wesley led Notre Dame in scoring last year in part because his raw explosive ability and athleticism were too much for ACC defenders to handle and stood apart from most college players. It’s the norm in the NBA.
That didn’t make the Spurs any less intrigued, though.
“Blake is interesting,” Spurs general manager Brian Wright told reporters Friday. “He’s a combo guard, can play a little two [guard], can play a little point. Late-blooming guard. He’s a kid that if you’re not in the pandemic in COVID and he’s seen on the [AAU] circuit more, you don’t know where he’d be rated.”
Wesley will earn a chance to prove himself at the NBA level first. Wright said all three first-rounders will begin the year with a roster spot. They’ll compete among themselves and with the Spurs’ veterans for consistent minutes and rotation spots. Wesley and Branham are both combo guards and will compete directly against each other.
It will be Wesley’s toughest basketball test yet. Like everything else up to this point, though, he’s confident he can handle it. He did, after all, grow up training with former Purdue guard and No. 5 overall pick Jaden Ivey in South Bend. Workouts were demanding and intense. Wesley credits his predilection for playing defense to them. He learned the game from his dad, Derrick, a former guard at Ball State who played his senior year for College Basketball Hall of Fame coach Rick Majerus.
“Jaden and I go way back. We grew up together just competing,” Wesley said. “We worked out together one time and our trainer was like, ‘Y’all aren’t competing hard enough.’ So we went one-on-one and picked up each other full court. We used to go at it all the time. We have that dog mentality. Ever since then, I’ve loved to play defense.”
The defensive acumen offers a path to possible Year 1 minutes, even if his offensive game needs the considerable refinement most draft analysts think it will. The Spurs bet on his ceiling, but also feel confident in his floor.
Still, whoever drafted Wesley was taking him for what he could become, not what he already is or because he’s a surefire rookie-year contributor. He landed with a team known for its player development skills. The Spurs drafted a player eager to be developed.
“You’re talking about speed, competitiveness, a motor that keeps going,” Wright said. “He loves the gym. He wants to work. He wants to get better.”
