Jayden Quaintance is a very talented basketball player.
Need proof? Quaintance was drafted 20th overall by the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Draft Tuesday night, despite potentially needing a procedure that could sideline him for a good chunk of his rookie season.
Players have to have talent to be drafted into the NBA, so that tells you how talented Quaintance is. Even though we only saw him for four games in Kentucky last year, he showed why the Cats coveted him in the transfer portal.
Quaintance missed most of last season, either recovering from a torn ACL or managing the same knee he injured in his freshman season in 2025 at Arizona State. While that knee is fully intact, Dr. Riley Williams III — head team physician and orthopedic surgeon for the Brooklyn Nets and famous for performing surgery on Paul George’s gruesome open tibia-fibula fracture with USA Basketball in 2014– recommended a follow-up procedure that could keep him off the floor for six months, according to KSR’s Jack Pilgrim.
Six months. That’s at least until December.
You have to feel for Quaintance. None of this is his fault. Injuries happen. By the time he takes the floor with the Spurs, if he has this procedure, it will have been nearly two years since he originally tore his ACL. That’s a long time to be dealing with a significant injury.
The good news is that San Antonio is a great destination for Quaintance. A model organization that is coming off an NBA Finals berth and has a budding superstar in Victor Wembanyama. We will see a lot of Quaintance once he’s able to take the floor, given that the Spurs will be on national television many times this upcoming season.
The goal for Quaintance is a long career. That is why caution may be the best approach.
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