When LaMarcus Aldridge was released, we all knew the roster was in rebuilding mode. Gorgui Dieng and whoever else were getting an extended tryout and the Spurs were really building for this current season and beyond.
When I was wildly speculating and hoping for a Ben Simmons trade I asked some questions about the future.
The Spurs are looking at the next few season with the same kind of problems as they would have if they were not to trade for Simmons. Who will score? Who will shoot the three at a decent clip not named Patty Mills? Who will coach this squad?
We also wondered aloud about the future and who they would be targeting this offseason. Atlanta’s John Collins is the hope. During one of the drafts of this post DeRozan was traded to the Bulls. I was literally typing out “DeRozan is rumored to go to Chicago …”
Let us recap the days(s) of Free Agency so far:
Doug McDermott: 3 years $42MM
Doug is a shoooooter and has had a nice little NBA career. There were concerns coming out of Creighton about his ability to last in the league and if he would be a defensive liability. He’s no Bruce Bowen but he can hold his own in the right scheme. His real value comes from his ability to knock down about 40% of threes. His signing sure seemed like it meant he would be taking Rudy Gay minutes and …
Rudy Gay to Jazz: 2 year deal
Rudy Gay was a surprise Spur. He was coming off an Achilles injury and had the reputation of being the poster child for conventional basketball wisdom in light of the analytics revolution. He showed himself to be a model Spur and was super productive in his role.
Zach Collins: 3-years $22MM
Collins is a skilled big man with a sketchy injury past. He was good at Gonzaga and showed flashes of a modern big in his Portland days. The Spurs did a great job rehabbing Rudy Gay’s image and I imagine Zach Collins — a young dude with potential — can thrive here. Of course, the Spurs tried that with guys like Trey Lyles.
Trey Lyles and Gorgui Dieng: To Detroit and Atlanta, respectively
Trey was nice for a good half-season I thought. Dieng showed some signs but nothing amazing and the Spurs are betting Collins is a better long-term option. They both can shoot and ZC has more upside potential.
DeRozan to Bulls for Aminu, Young: “Report”
Wow says Bulls get DeRozan on a 3-year, $85MM deal and the Spurs get Al-Farouq Aminu and his expiring deal, and Thad Young, a consistent 12 ppg guy. Also, there are some picks, including a 2025 first rounder.
Also apparently the Spurs have about $6MM in room left after the trade.
Patty Mills: 2 years $12MM Nets
Patty is balling out in Japan, and he was always likely to move on with his career. He had a hell of a season off the bench for a team that was not good enough. He should be a big time contributor off the bench for the Nets, getting wide open shots from Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
After all of that here is The Roster:
Ball Handling Wings: Dejounte Murray, Derrick White, Lonnie Walker, Tre Jones
Off Ball Wings: Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Josh Primo, Doug McDermott, Joe Wieskamp, Al-Farouq Aminu
Bigs: Jacob Poeltl, Thad Young, Zach Collins, Drew Eubanks, Luka Šamanić
Barring some cuts or additional trades of the Chicago guys this is about it. I’ll tell you now: this does not look formidable in the least. It is young though and 2016 pick Dejounte Murray is the longest-tenured Spur.
I can see scoring coming from White/Keldon/Young and some nice defensive lineups that include Vassell, Aminu, and Poeltl.
Aminu, and Young are right about 33% shooters from three. That puts them in line with Vassell, White, and everyone else on the squad. The problem is that there are fewer DeRozan sickouts for them to catch and shoot from.
DeMar never wanted to come to San Antonio, but made the most of his time on the court. He developed his game and coached up the young dudes. He was not afraid of the scoring duties, or the crunch time, however ineffective he was at times. We’ll have more on him specifically, later this week.
My overall impression was that the Spurs did good business. They tried to make it work with a Plan B after Kawhi left, and they did about as good as they could while not ever completely tearing it down. They explored the trade market for Aldridge and DeRozan and in the end they both played out their deals (just about).
Gay, and Mills were and are valuable role players and their like will be signing for the Spurs in the future when and if this organization can get back into contention. We talked about Primo, and how we should give the Spurs the benefit of the doubt when it comes to evaluating talent.
As far as the Chicago salary-matchers, the Spurs apparently value them enough to take them. They considered taking the Heat’s picks+Igoudala offer before turning it down as not good enough. Both could play a little part in this campaign as they try to earn deals next season, or might be trade assets later.
Aminu has been a solid role guy his whole career and Young has been a capable stretch four who can score from anywhere as a big. Both are pros and the Spurs place big value on professionals. I can see good things happening.
I do not imagine any other game-breaking things will be happening and the next roster moves are likely to be small. That means no John Collins, a guy the Spurs were reportedly in the market to try to pry from Atlanta.