SAN ANTONIO – The ping pong balls have spoken: San Antonio will have the No. 2 and the No. 14 picks in June’s NBA Draft.
The announcement was made during the NBA’s 41st annual Draft Lottery reveal on Monday night in Chicago.
San Antonio is not the only team with a lottery pick among the top four picks.
Dallas, which will pick No. 1 overall, won the draft lottery for the first time.
The Philadelphia 76ers will pick third, and the Charlotte Hornets will have the fourth overall pick.
The Spurs are the only team in the NBA with two lottery picks in next month’s draft.
A KSAT crew was at the Roo Pub on the North Side as the draft order was revealed. Watch Spurs fans’ reactions in the video below.
The selection order for picks five through 13 is Utah, Washington, New Orleans, Brooklyn, Toronto, Houston, Portland, Chicago and Atlanta.
San Antonio had the eighth-best odds for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery. According to the NBA, the Spurs’ chances were:
6% chance at the No. 1 pick
6.5% chance at the No. 2 pick
7.1% chance at the No. 3 pick
7.8% chance at the No. 4 pick
26.3% total chance of landing a top-four pick
San Antonio has a storied history of striking it rich in the Draft Lottery, landing the No. 1 pick in 1987 (David Robinson), 1997 (Tim Duncan) and 2023 (Victor Wembanyama).
In 2024, the Spurs moved from fifth to fourth to draft guard Stephon Castle.
Since 1987, the Spurs have stayed put or improved their expected slot in all of their eight lottery appearances, giving fans reason to hope for another leap.
The Spurs finished the 2024-25 regular season with a 34-48 record, the eighth-worst in the NBA.
The Spurs’ lottery position was significantly influenced by Wembanyama’s deep vein thrombosis diagnosis, which sidelined the 7-foot-3 superstar after the All-Star break.
Before his diagnosis, Wembanyama accounted for 21.5% of the Spurs’ points (24.3 per game), 24.4% of their rebounds (11 per game), and a staggering 58.5% of their blocks (3.8 per game).
However, San Antonio’s late-season surge — going 22-21 over the final 43 games — kept them from falling further, leaving them in a middle ground: too talented to tank outright, but not strong enough for a play-in push.
Beyond their selection, the Spurs also hold an unprotected first-round pick (No. 14 overall) from the Atlanta Hawks, acquired in the 2022 Dejounte Murray trade.
The Hawks, with a 36-46 record, finished with the 14th-worst record, giving them a slim 0.7% chance at the No. 1 pick and a 3.8% chance at a top-four selection.
Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson and general manager Brian Wright express reactions
“We were excited about having two lottery picks in this draft. It’s a deep draft. There are a lot of good players. A lot of dynamic, versatile type of players and I think our group is always going to do the due diligence and look at two young pieces to add to the group,” said Johnson.
Johnson discussed what the two-minute commercial break was like for him before the reveal of the top four picks.
“It’s nerves. It’s not nervous because it’s all good things, but it’s nerves because you want it all,” Johnson said in part. “When you jump into the top four, you put yourself in a place to make a really big acquisition with a really good player,” said Johnson.
With the recent announcement of his role as the official head coach of the Spurs, Johnson discussed how he plans to lead the team moving forward.
“As cliché as it sounds, continue to rely on the support system that I relied on last year, and the position that I was in, and the decade that I’ve been here. You know, I’m very fortunate that the alignment, the continuity, the base foundation is not changing,” said Johnson.
Johnson described how he navigated the emotional landscape of the day he learned he would be officially taking the helm.
“All of it. It was a day that was wide-ranging for the human emotions of everybody, and I lived on every side of the point of it, with my relationships with him (Popovich) and my experiences with him with what we had been through and what I had been through. It’s part of life and our little bubble within our organization that we feel deeply about. I’m very proud, happy, deeply honored and humbled to be a part of it,” said Johnson.
After the lottery results, Wright expressed some of his immediate thoughts to media members.
“Shock, excitement, you feel all of the emotions. Incredible night. Super excited to get to work and see what the future holds,” said Wright.
When asked about the significance of acquiring such a high pick and its potential impact on the team, Wright expressed optimism.
“Yeah, you think so. Always, guys got to go out there and prove it and earn everything they get, but there are some really talented players in the top of the draft. We’re excited about what they may bring,” said Wright.
Elite prospects in the 2025 NBA Draft
The 2025 NBA Draft is considered one of the deepest in recent memory, with top prospects like Duke’s Cooper Flagg, Rutgers’ Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, and Baylor’s VJ Edgecombe headlining a class with great potential.
For the Spurs, who are on the tail end of rebuilding around Wembanyama and newly acquired All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox, the lottery could be pivotal.
A top-four pick could land a game-changer like Flagg, a 6-foot-9 forward with elite two-way potential, or Bailey, a 6-foot-10 wing known for his shot-making.
Even at No. 8, a prospect like Illinois’ point guard/shooting guard Kasparas Jakucionis, who hails from Lithuania, could be an investment for the future.
The Hawks’ pick at No. 14 offers a chance to snag a high-upside player to address long-term needs for perimeter shooting and frontcourt versatility.
Whether they jump into the top four or stay at No. 8 and No. 14, San Antonio is poised to add talent that could propel them toward the playoffs in 2025-26.
The lottery draft begins at 6 p.m. on Monday. The 2025 NBA Draft will begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 25, live on KSAT 12.
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