Spurs Notebook: On Dylan Harper, the 3-Guard Lineup & 2 Rookies Helpers

The San Antonio Spurs finished the preseason 2-3. They lost 123-116 to the Atlanta Hawks on Oct. 8, 102-98 at Phoenix on Oct. 10, and 119-109 at Utah on Oct. 12. Then they beat the Suns 123-103 on Oct. 14 and the Sacramento Kings 126-97 on Oct. 16.

The schedule ran every other day. All three home games were at Frost Bank Center, where each drew a listed crowd of 18,354.

San Antonio opens the regular season Tuesday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. ... and we're ready to empty our pregame notebook ...

Dylan Harper led the Spurs in scoring in three of the five games. He had 16 points and four assists against Atlanta. Two nights later at Phoenix, he scored 15 on 6-of-9 shooting.

In the finale, Harper scored 14 straight points in the third quarter and finished with 19. He shot 3-of-6 from 3-point range that night and 57.1% for the preseason, on 3.5 attempts per game. As a rookie, he shot 34.4% from deep.

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson told reporters after the Kings game that Harper will start the opener.

De'Aaron Fox missed the first three games. When he returned Oct. 14 against Phoenix, Johnson started him with Stephon Castle and Harper for the first time, along with Devin Vassell and Victor Wembanyama. The group was plus-10 in 11 minutes.

In 2025-26, the same three guards shared the floor for 25 minutes and had a minus-26.9 net rating.

Against Sacramento two nights later, the Spurs scored 42 points in the first quarter and allowed 18. Fox, Castle, and Harper combined for 19 of them. Fox finished the first half with 16 points against his former team.

Harper is still learning to play off the ball, down to when to cut and when to space.

"I think we all help each other out. I feel like we're all very unselfish," Harper said. "And for me, just learning how to play off the ball and getting better at that day in and day out, and just knowing when to cut, when to space, little things like that. But I feel like getting reps with them now is definitely going to help us moving forward. And I feel like we all know how we play, but I think we're all getting a flow of how we play while we're on the court together."

With nine Spurs held out at Utah, two rookies led San Antonio in the box score. Tarris Reed Jr., the 26th pick, grabbed 17 rebounds, eight of them offensive, and added four steals. Ja'Kobi Gillespie, the 42nd pick, led all scorers with 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting.

Reed followed with a team-high nine rebounds against Phoenix. Gillespie scored 13 points and made three 3-pointers in that game.

Reed is on a standard contract. Gillespie is on a two-way deal, and the Spurs carried 14 players on standard contracts entering the final week of the preseason.

Carter Bryant scored 11 points against Atlanta and sat out the Utah game. Against Phoenix, he made four of seven 3-pointers and finished with 16 points, five rebounds, and two blocks in 20 minutes. He has pointed to confidence as the piece he dialed in on this summer.

Some days in camp, Bryant guarded Fox. Other days it was Castle, Wembanyama, Harper, Julian Champagnie, or Vassell.

"When you're competing against four All-Star-level players every day in practice, and it's like you've got an All-Star and MVP-caliber player on a team, wherever you look, you're kind of just like, 'All right, man, there's no slow days in practice. There's no days where it's like I get a break,'" Bryant said. "For myself, going into training camp and stuff, some days I'm guarding Fox, some days I'm guarding Steph, some days I'm guarding Vic, sometimes I'm guarding Dill, sometimes I'm guarding Julian — he's just running all over the court — and then some days I'm guarding Devin, learning how to get through pin-downs and all these things."

"So you kind of just keep looking down the list. Devin averaged 20 at one point. Steph is more than capable of averaging 20. Vic averaged over 20. Dylan can average 20. Foxy averaged 20 in his career. Harrison averaged just about 20, or if not over 20 at once. We have Tobias, Keldon. You look down the list of guys, and it's all dudes that can score the basketball. So it's not like when you're in practice, you just are like, 'Man, I can relax on this play.' So learning how to guard different guys, different ways they move their body, different ways they get to scoring, it's helped me a lot. And I feel like it showed through the duration of last season, and I'm just looking to get better on it this year," Bryant continued.

Wembanyama played 22 minutes in the loss at Phoenix and had six assists. He did not play at Utah. In the Oct. 14 rematch with the Suns, he scored 19 points with two steals and four blocks.

He led the NBA with 3.08 blocks per game last season and won Defensive Player of the Year unanimously.

Harrison Barnes scored 19 points at Utah, and Keldon Johnson, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, added 15. Champagnie and Jordan McLaughlin had 14 each. Luke Kornet started that night in place of Wembanyama. Two nights earlier at Phoenix, Kornet led the Spurs with 10 rebounds.

Tobias Harris strained his left calf in training camp, and Mitch Johnson ruled him out of the opener Monday. First-round pick Jayden Quaintance is also out after surgery on his right knee in July.

Tip-off Tuesday is 8:30 p.m. CT on NBC and Peacock. San Antonio hosts the Houston Rockets on Friday in Austin and plays at the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday.