I first thought about writing a new piece immediately following the Dejounte Murray trade but then I remembered that there are already a ton of people you can read for well-researched reaction pieces instead of lil’ old me.
I also thought it would be potentially more interesting to wait and see if the Dejounte deal was only the beginning of a series of trades I could talk about.
Well uh, okay let’s see here.
The Spurs, since trading away Murray and Jock Landale for several future picks, a swap, and Danilo Galinari have…
Waived Galinari
Signed San Antonio legend Gorgiu Dieng (32 years old) to a one-year deal
Claimed 24-year-old Isaiah Roby off waivers after his release from Oklahoma City. His remaining contract is for just the upcoming season
…a whopping $33M in cap space just sitting there, with only a single two-way contract open
This doesn’t exactly feel like the draft outline of the next great American novel but I’ve already started writing and it feels wrong to stop so I’m not gonna do that.
What are we going to do about these other vets, here?
The Murray trade happened and everyone started screaming that the Spurs have thrown their hat into the ring of tanking, perhaps enticed by some French dude that isn’t named Tony Parker but - of course - is intrinsically linked to Tony Parker.
I don’t know if I buy it, though. Not yet, anyway.
Yes, the Murray trade made the Spurs unquestionably worse than they were at the end of last season. Of course. The immediate payoff was paying several million dollars for the right to dump the corpse of Danilo Gallinari somewhere off I-10 between Houston and San Antonio. It’s not something you do if you want to win more than 34 games in the upcoming season.
…but at the same time, if you’re going to embrace a full-on tank (which for the record I’m not going to endorse, but I also appreciate the reasoning for making the Dejounte trade), why is Poeltl still on the team? He was apparently a wanted man at the trade deadline, so I’m a bit confused that San Antonio was unable to procure a satisfactory return, having already sent Derrick White to Boston.
Sure, maybe the Spurs’ front office didn’t plan on trading Murray in the off-season while they were navigating the trade deadline, but Murray was the desire of rival GMs at that point too. I have to believe there were at least ideas for plans to move everyone and give up on the 2022 playoffs, and if not then, in the offseason.
But the offseason has arrived, the draft has come and gone, and Poeltl is still a Spur while Murray is not. At 26, Poeltl’s one of the oldest Spurs and - I think - now the longest tenured Spur! And so far, I haven’t heard a peep about whether or not other teams are still interested in acquiring his services.
Is this the result of a team with visions of tanking, or is this just a team getting weirder?
What happens now?
Now that Dieng is back and Zach Collins is still around (and slightly younger than Poeltl), we should ask how realistic a Poeltl trade is. Is Poeltl the kind of guy Phoenix would be comfortable with in order to shed Deandre Ayton’s pricier contract? Should San Antonio even want Ayton?
I can only answer the last question I asked there. I think yes, the Spurs should want Ayton and the reason has almost nothing to do with his on-court fit or whether or not they want to stay weird or start tanking.
As I mentioned earlier, the Spurs have a ton of cap space. And if I’ve learned anything over the last 5-6 years, it is that there is no such thing as an untradeable contract.
I mean, if John Wall can miss two years of basketball and still get his $50M contract moved multiple times I just find it hard to believe that anything means anything anymore.
What I’m getting at here is… if you’re San Antonio, why not sign Ayton? I don’t think Ayton alone puts you in danger of losing the 50+ games the team seems intent on losing in 2022-23. Not if you’re really going for those losses, anyway.
Best case scenario:1 Everyone thinks Ayton is just a lovely guy, and he plays really well, and San Antonio builds a successful team around him, Joshua Primo and Jeremy Sochan who all become undeniable All-Stars in the 2023-24 season. (Malaki Branham makes the team as a replacement after Devin Booker gets injured)
More likely scenario: Ayton is a lovely guy but also he doesn’t want to lose all the time and boy, are the Spurs ever losing all the time! Good news for us, a playoff hopeful is nervous and willing to sent more draft picks and some contract filler for a few years of Ayton.
Worst case scenario: Ayton’s knees both implode and he retires from basketball having played just five games for the San Antonio Spurs. Everyone is devastated. (I actually have no idea what the salary cap implications are on something like this, but either way it probably sucks to be both the Spurs and Ayton in this scenario)
Okay so what, then?
This was a long, meandering way of saying that I’m not going to believe the Spurs are really tanking as long as they employ one of the more effective (especially considering his salary) big men in the league when there’s been known interest in him dating back to February.
The Spurs sure are a weird team right now, though, that is for sure. The roster kind of feels like you have 100 puzzle pieces but they belong to seven different puzzles. You can try to jam shit around a bunch but the picture isn’t gonna come out right even if you do manage to put those 100 pieces together.
Are they weird on purpose? Or are they planning more nefarious deeds in the dark? Guess uh… guess we’ll see? Maybe?
As Jeff Rosenstock once sang:2
It’s gonna get sadder / It’s gonna get weirder / ‘Til I’m gone.
Fun fact
San Antonio has never beaten Cleveland in the Summer League. They’re 0-3 vs. the Cavaliers. The (very) young Spurs get the chance to change that on Friday night.
Thank you for reading. Please be kind to each other out there.
I should add that in my heart of hearts, the true best case scenario is somehow getting Steven Adams on the team but I’m guessing y’all are all tired of me going on about that pipe dream.
I’m willing to bet everything I own that nobody on the Spurs has any idea who Jeff Rosenstock or Bomb the Music Industry! are, but I’ll be damned if Saddr, Weirdr doesn’t describe the state of the team right now.
I will sign up for this sub stack simply because I too, would like Steven Adams on the Spurs.
caveat: I also wanted Kyrie Irving and even Ben Simmons so I may not be a stable person