The San Antonio Spurs are waiting for the next couple of weeks until they get to select Victor Wembanyama first overall. However, they may still have a couple more picks to use. Of those, Olivier-Maxence Prosper could potentially find himself available around the 33rd pick where the Spurs pick next.
The 6-foot-8 (with shoes on), 230-pound forward could be a great fit for the Spurs at that spot in the draft. After starting at Clemson, Prosper spent his last two years at Marquette where he prospered. He showed that he can be an energy and glue guy for a top tier Big East team. He has defensive versatility and is becoming a considerably better shooter. Here are his stats from the last season.
- 12.5 PPG, 1.4 TOPG, 0.9 SPG, 0.7 APG, 4.7 RPG
- 51.2 FG%, 33.9 3P%, 73.5 FT%
- 17.9 PER, 119.2 ORtg, 104.2 DRtg
Olivier-Maxence Prosper Breakdown
Prosper has been solid as a defender. One of his best traits is that he plays extremely hard on that end of the floor. He can stay with smaller ball handlers and even did so in a full-court press. Although he surely won’t be asked to do at the NBA level. With Prosper likely being a highly switchable defender, he will need to become a better rim protector as a potential small-ball center though. To give you an idea of how versatile he is on defense, he guarded the likes of Cam Whtimore (Villanova), Jordan Hawkins (UConn), and Colby Jones (Xavier) and more than held his own.
He has an NBA-ready body and should be able to hang with just about anybody he guards. He impressed a ton of teams in his pre-draft workouts and at the combine. Prosper showed some explosiveness he didn’t necessarily get to exhibit at Marquette and has been a quick riser on boards. He also showed he can shoot it a bit more consistently in the workouts and in the one scrimmage he played in.
If he can improve his jump shot and what teams think of him just in the time between the season and the combine, imagine what he can do with a pro staff in a full season of learning. That’s the kind of upside — even for an “older” prospect” — that teams like to see and tend to draft in the first round. He’s projected to get picked anywhere between 25 and 40 in this draft.
