Dylan Harper is officially back on the court for the San Antonio Spurs, and that gives the team a big opportunity: to get Carter Bryant to the G League for some additional opportunity over the next few weeks.
Essentially, Harper’s return makes the Spurs’ rotation just a bit too crowded for Bryant. With Dylan back on the hardwood, San Antonio’s guard rotation is suddenly going to have a lot more minutes filled. We know that the Spurs aren’t purely in a developmental mode anymore, so they need to prioritize playing the guys that are going to win them basketball games here and now.
Plenty of Spurs fans have seen Bryant show flashes of potential, but he also still looks a little bit overwhelmed by the speed of the NBA game. Carter has shown a few confident catch and shoot threes, transition finishes, and smart defensive plays. However, he still frequently hesitates when handling the ball, can get a little lost at times, and doesn’t quite have the rhythm of players who have a few more years under their belt.
Carter Bryant needs more reps in the G League
Carter only got one year of college playing experience at Arizona, and as a result, he’s entering the league a little less polished. With the limited college experience catching up to him just a bit, it would be beneficial to get him in a setting where he can learn a bit and develop more quickly. This matches up with the scouting reports we saw from him in the pre-draft process, where scouts noted that he has elite tools but raw decision making and needs more structured reps.
And in the grand scheme of things, the G League is the only place Bryant is going to be able to get 25 to 30 real developmental minutes right now. He would benefit massively from getting more on ball reps, understanding more about NBA defenses, and being put in more situations where he has to make live decisions in the heat of the game. Those are things he simply isn’t going to be able to do alongside Dylan Harper or De’Aaron Fox.
Right now, confidence is the biggest short-term issue for Bryant. He’s looked a bit hesitant at times, but the easy fix for this is getting him more reps as a primary or secondary option in Austin, and letting him string together more positive possessions in a row.
At the end of the day, the physical tools aren’t the issue for Carter Bryant, the process is. His upside is still there, he just needs a controlled environment to properly access it. The easiest direction to go from here is sending him to the G League.
