The Athletic's Sam Vecenie updated his mock NBA Draft this morning and has Bruno going No. 29 to the Spurs:
29. San Antonio Spurs (from TOR) — Bruno Fernando
6-10 center, sophomore, Maryland
The Spurs are one of the few teams in the NBA that utilizes the center position to a significant extent. But behind LaMarcus Aldridge and Jakob Poeltl, the team doesn’t have a ton of depth. Fernando would be a good fit here. Few players took as big of a leap from Year One to Year Two as Fernando. He has ball skills to be able to run dribble hand-offs and short rolls offensively, can make the right reads as a passer, and has the potential to add a mid-range jumper. Defensively, he’s a big body with length inside, but needs to add more instinctual awareness as a weak-side help defender. Hopefully, there’s still time for him to learn those skills. He’s considered a likely first round pick right now by executives, but my bet is that come closer to draft time he starts to fall as few teams in this area of the draft should be drafting big over wing help.
29. San Antonio Spurs (from TOR) — Bruno Fernando
6-10 center, sophomore, Maryland
The Spurs are one of the few teams in the NBA that utilizes the center position to a significant extent. But behind LaMarcus Aldridge and Jakob Poeltl, the team doesn’t have a ton of depth. Fernando would be a good fit here. Few players took as big of a leap from Year One to Year Two as Fernando. He has ball skills to be able to run dribble hand-offs and short rolls offensively, can make the right reads as a passer, and has the potential to add a mid-range jumper. Defensively, he’s a big body with length inside, but needs to add more instinctual awareness as a weak-side help defender. Hopefully, there’s still time for him to learn those skills. He’s considered a likely first round pick right now by executives, but my bet is that come closer to draft time he starts to fall as few teams in this area of the draft should be drafting big over wing help.
