NBA lottery pick Josh Primo wants you to watch him prove what the Spurs already knew

The biggest surprise of the 2021 NBA draft was when the San Antonio Spurs selected Joshua Primo with the No. 12 overall pick. Heck, even he didn’t believe his agent when he first heard the news.

Most analysts had Primo, who doesn’t turn 19 years old until Christmas and is the youngest player who declared for the 2021 NBA draft, pegged somewhere closer to the end of the first round in their mock draft projections. But as recently as April 2021, after the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, Primo’s name didn’t appear on a single mock draft.

For some, the pick may be a bit confusing. Fortunately, after getting to know each other a bit during the pre-draft process, Primo and his team invited me to join them to watch the draft unfold.

What I learned, and what can help clear up some confusion, is fairly simple. Many of the scouts and executives I have spoken with believed Primo could have been a lottery pick if he returned for another year of college basketball. So if that’s to be believed, then we already knew Primo bragged lottery-level talent. The question would be whether it would be developed in an NCAA system or an NBA system.

Once he was fully committed to staying in the draft, NBA teams no longer had the option of waiting to see how he would improve as a sophomore. If they wanted him in their organization, they had to strike now.

So when it was time for the No. 12 overall pick and San Antonio was on the clock, as Primo and his family and friends anxiously watched the screen, his agent came over to break the good news. San Antonio made the call. Primo was heading to the Spurs.

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“All that hard work, all the moments that you have with your family, it all pours out. It kind of just flowed from there. I let it out,” Primo told For The Win, shortly after his lifelong dream had been realized. “I wasn’t going to hold it back at that point.”

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the number of prospects invited to attend the 2021 NBA draft was limited. Primo didn’t receive the invitation to Barclays Center. Prospects not invited to the green room were not permitted to come shake the commissioner’s hand if they chose to attend in the crowd, so he and his family wound up having their own party.

Though he was actually selected before eight of the players who were invited to the green room, he felt he was exactly where he wanted to be.

“I was able to have family and friends around me and the guys that I worked with over the past few months like Yves Pons and Justin Champagnie, guys that pushed me each and every day. I think it’s an even better situation. I’m here with the people I’ve been grinding with.”

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Ultimately, when San Antonio was on the clock, it was hardly a big deal that his body of work was still relatively limited. It didn’t matter that Primo didn’t begin his season at Alabama in the starting lineup or that he came off the bench during their two games in the NCAA tournament, too.

In fact, the track record of other young guards and wings selected in the first round without much first-unit experience in the NCAA is fruitful. Zach LaVine, who was an All-Star this past season, was selected at No. 13 overall in 2014 despite starting just one game for UCLA. Devin Booker, a two-time All-Star and reigning Western Conference champion, also went No. 13 overall without starting a single game at Kentucky.

Much like with LaVine and Booker, as I wrote in my article about the biggest risers in the draft, Primo physically fits the bill for what NBA teams are looking for. He is 6-foot-5 with a 6-foot-9 wingspan, ideal height and length for a prospect likely to play on the perimeter in the pros.

He also has the most marketable skill there is for a modern NBA: a lethal jump shot. He showed it when he played for Canada’s squad during the U19 World Cup in 2019 and it continued during his time at Alabama.

Primo averaged 1.25 points per possession on his jump shot this past season, per Synergy, which ranked 96th percentile among D-I players. With his size and his shooting, he checked enough boxes for San Antonio and always made sense as a long-term investment.

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“They know I’m able to play a lot of positions on the floor. I’m able to handle the ball and make plays. Of course, my shooting ability is great,” he explained. “They’re a team that is committed to the process. I think that’s what was big for them. I’m a young player coming into this league. They know I’m going to work. I know I’m going to work. We’re going to have fun with this whole thing.”

The main takeaway from my experience with Primo on Thursday night is how much of the pre-draft process doesn’t show up on paper with statistics or on film during the games. NBA organizations are investing millions of dollars into their first-round picks and want to make sure they are confident and believe in the individual they plan to select.

Whether it was from folks who spoke to him at Basketball Without Borders in 2020 or from teammates like Herbert Jones who played alongside him at the collegiate level, I had heard nothing but rave reviews of Primo. I wasn’t surprised when ESPN, SI.com, CBS Sports, BasketballNews.com and Chad Ford all listed Primo as one of the biggest risers following the NBA draft combine.

However, when I interviewed Primo during the pre-draft process, I still found myself blown away by the maturity and wisdom he carried in every answer. His anecdote about why he never quits at anything — except tennis, because he was a 12-year-old kid getting destroyed by 8-year-olds — made me laugh out loud.

He was somebody who understood the proverbial it and is willing to accept whatever role it takes for him to take the next steps in his path to success. All things considered, it was very easy to see why San Antonio decided he was worth the pick. I asked him what his first thoughts were when he put on the hat.

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“Family,” he said. “That’s what they preach. I went to their workout and it’s guys who are going to work hard and they’re going to work with you. When I put that hat on, I knew that they got me and I got them. We’re a part of a huge family organization now.”

When the pre-draft process began, Primo told his agent that he wanted to end up on the Spurs. It’s easy to see why. After all, San Antonio won three titles just in between the time he was born and when he turned five years old.

Even the most casual basketball fan knows the success the organization has had with the likes of longtime players like David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. In terms of development, few prospects flourished after the draft as much as Kawhi Leonard did during his time with the organization.

Primo is well-aware of it all and eager to be next in the lineage of players to thrive on the Spurs.

“I know what they’re about. They have sustained winning for a long period of time and they put in work for the development of their players. That’s very attractive to me,” Primo said. “I’m going to work hard and I tend to work fast. Watch me prove what the Spurs already knew.”