The San Antonio Spurs have spent the last eight seasons looking for the next Manu Ginobili.
Come to think of it, the rest of the NBA has long looked for a player like Manu. He was the rare player, truly with a superstar skillset, who agreed to come off the bench for the prime of his career.
Players like James Harden, Tyler Herro, and recently Payton Pritchard started their careers as excellent bench players, but quickly took over as All-Stars, or at least elite starters. Ginobili, it seems, is in rare air.
As the Spurs ponder the future of Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle, and De’Aaron Fox, it’s easy to ask Harper to come off the bench, embrace the Manu role, and play below his skill set on a title contender. After all, Ginobili is one of Harper’s mentors, the youngster models his game after the Argentine’s, and there’s a clear role for Harper as one of the best Sixth Men in the NBA.
However, asking him to remain with the second unit is unreasonable. There’s a reason why Manu is the exception, not the rule.
Harper’s Career Arc Won’t Match Ginobili’s
The dream for the next four years is pretty simple: the Spurs let Harper, Castle, and Fox share the backcourt, letting whoever has the hot hand close games out alongside Victor Wembanyama and Devin Vassell.
The reality, of course, is that the team will eventually have to make a choice.
NBA players get contract boosts for making All-NBA or winning Defensive Player of the Year. DPOTY seems to be Wembanyama’s to lose for the next decade. Fans and experts both agree that Harper will eventually be an All-NBA player, but if he comes off the bench, he’ll never get paid like one.
Ginobili took pay cuts and a lesser role to stay in San Antonio, but that loyalty and self-sacrifice shouldn’t be expected from a player of Harper’s caliber. Ginobili was drafted 57th overall, the penultimate pick in 1999. No one expected him to ever be a key rotation player, much less a superstar.
Harper, meanwhile, was picked second overall. He has the markers of a franchise player, and everyone knows it, including himself. Ginobili probably wanted to give back to the only franchise that gave him a shot at the NBA. Harper has no such reason to be loyal like that, and should sign with the team that offers him the biggest role and the most money.
There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be the Spurs.
Ginobili was drafted without any draft comparisons, because no one knew who he was. Harper was compared to Dwyane Wade, who only ever took a back seat to LeBron James.
Harper playing second fiddle to Wembanyama seems like an inevitability, but playing behind De’Aaron Fox? That seems far-fetched.
The Spurs lucked into a really, really good player with legitimate All-NBA potential in the 2025 NBA Draft. Asking him to play a lesser role for the sake of “tradition” when 29 other teams would happily hand him the keys to the offense is nonsensical.
Let’s hope he plays like Manu, but is offered a much bigger role.
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