Charania: Spurs Have Exploratory Interest In Murray

[CGD]

Granted, he looks like he invented the game of basketball every time he's ever suited up against the Spurs, but trading for Trae Young would be an awful, franchise crippling mistake. He's a complete anti-Spur: bad teammate, coach killer, non-existent defense, heliocentric, plays losing basketball and would cost a ton of draft/player capital and destroy future flexibility. He's exactly the type of stat stuffing empty calorie ball dominant loser that the Spurs should avoid at all costs. There is a reason that the Hawks are 16-23 this season and it's not the teammates around him. That's a solid roster with a pretty good coach.

Basically this. I bet his trade around the league isn’t as high as people think for this very reason.

[BacktoBasics]

I don’t disagree on approach, but I do on Trae. I’d rather make a play for LaMelo or someone with more size who plays defense.

LaMelo the player is interesting but he can’t seem to stay healthy and that family is toxic. Although pops has been quieter these days.

[Mr. Body]

Last season's All-Star voting revealed that Trae Young wasn't popular amongst other players, and that some teammates didn't even vote for him. Notable things: he was only 12th in player votes in the East for guards. He received LESS player votes than he has teammates.

[R. DeMurre]

Trae is one of the last guys I'd ever want to pair with Wemby. He's a max contract undersized defensive liability who has shot 35% from three in his career. The biggest mistake I think the Spurs can make now is to start compromising hugely on D and positional size with a justification that "Wemby will cover for that." It didn't work in Utah with Gobert, and it rarely has in other places either. Amplify your strengths, don't whittle away at them.
People like to think of Trae as Steph Curry Lite, but with a career 3pt% of 35% he's closer to Russell Westbrook's career 30.5% than he is to Steph's 42.6%.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

There's huge improvement in our team just by inserting Tre Jones into the starting lineup. I'm becoming a bigger and bigger believer in the investment in defensive wings/guards and three point shooting and just adding a pass-first point guard or two to the roster. Murray would be better than Trae on the Spurs, but I'm not sure I'd sacrifice much for either of them. Spend the money beefing up the perimeter defense and scoring.

[Davidicus]

Hawks insider on their board: "Spurs have offers for Murray and capela"

Using my English skills, implying we have individual offers out for those players.

[Truckules]

Trae is one of the last guys I'd ever want to pair with Wemby. He's a max contract undersized defensive liability who has shot 35% from three in his career. The biggest mistake I think the Spurs can make now is to start compromising hugely on D and positional size with a justification that "Wemby will cover for that." It didn't work in Utah with Gobert, and it rarely has in other places either. Amplify your strengths, don't whittle away at them.
People like to think of Trae as Steph Curry Lite, but with a career 3pt% of 35% he's closer to Russell Westbrook's career 30.5% than he is to Steph's 42.6%.

There's a lot of reasons not to trade for Trae, but three-point shooting is near the end of the list. If you just look at percent then it seems like he's an average 3pt shooter, but the reality is that he's only assisted on 30.5% of his threes. The league average is 84.2% assists on threes and even Steph Curry is assisted on 61% of his threes. Only Luka is better at creating three point shots on his own. Trae is an elite shooter. The problem is everything else: the price is going to be high, really bad defender, ball-dominant so less touches for Wemby, locker room vibes seem bad, etc.

[LeBowen]

the price is going to be high

Well, not that long ago Gobert cost 5 first rounders, the price wouldn't be that high, the market dried out and most teams have nothing to offer.
Obviously this is only happening if Trae asks for a trade, no chance Spurs make an offer without a trade request by him.

really bad defender

So are most offensive engines these days.
Haliburton has great size and is as just as bad.

ball-dominant so less touches for Wemby

Because he gets so many these days.
For me the biggest upside Trae has is his playmaking and passing.
You won't find a better PNR partner for Wemby.

locker room vibes seem bad

We don't know what's going on over there.

Something that's overlooked is that Spurs need tough characters that won't crumble when needed the most.
Trae enjoyed taking the villain role in NY and Phily, not many players can deliver under such pressure.

My only real concern would be his defense. But he's improved and with a proper roster around him, it wouldn't be an issue.
Getting an elite playmaker that's not a negative defender is really hard these days.

[DAF86]

Honestly if that's true that Atlanta is shopping Murray for a couple of future firsts and salary matching flotsam you gotta think they're interested in just blowing it all up and trading Trae away too. Doesn't really make much sense otherwise. ROFL if the Spurs could effectively trade 2022 Dejounte for 2024 Trae.

They realized Murray never made sense alongside Trae and are trying to get some 1st rounders back. I doubt substracting Murray will do much either way for their play and/or record. They'll remain a mid to bad team.

[DAF86]

No way I want Young on our team. Expecially at a high price. I. Go we can easily find a veteran pg on trade in February or free agency in the summer that gives us the same or more (in the sense of effectively improving the team) than what a young could give us... My thoughts are for example on the Orlando situation, where there are four point guards with at least three of them (Black, Suggs and Fultz) that would give us more defense and quite the same play making than young... The only thing lacking being the outside shooting (but for that we could look at shooting guards and forwards, right?)... In particular I'm looking at Fultz being ideal on our system...

In what world are Black, Suggs and Fults anywhere close to being able to deliver the same level of playmaking as Trae Young?

I know folks have questions about Young's height and his heliocentric style of play, but that's no excuse to pair him next to role players, tbh. The dude is averaging 28 and 11.

[spurraider21]

Hawks insider on their board: "Spurs have offers for Murray and capela"

Using my English skills, implying we have individual offers out for those players.

or hawks really want to tear it down and want to offload capela's 2 year contract as part of a deal and the spurs have presented a couple of different packages to get it done

cant really imagine the spurs going after capela by himself. his salary is about 20 mil.

if the hawks just want expirings, mcdermott/osman/graham* actually gets it done, in addition to whatever draft capital is going ATL's way. the spurs may as well just send back bassey in that kind of deal, let ATL hang onto him for cheap for the next 2 years to back up okongwu.

unless ATL wants Zollins of course, but that defeats the purpose of dumping capela

[Mr. Body]

I'd think there'd be a lot of interest around the league for Capela if he's on the move.

[R. DeMurre]

There's a lot of reasons not to trade for Trae, but three-point shooting is near the end of the list. If you just look at percent then it seems like he's an average 3pt shooter, but the reality is that he's only assisted on 30.5% of his threes. The league average is 84.2% assists on threes and even Steph Curry is assisted on 61% of his threes. Only Luka is better at creating three point shots on his own. Trae is an elite shooter. The problem is everything else: the price is going to be high, really bad defender, ball-dominant so less touches for Wemby, locker room vibes seem bad, etc.

Sorry, i just can't categorize Trae as an elite shooter. His 2pt%, 3pt%, and TS% are all average at best. Only his FT% is elite-- the one place where there's no defender. For me, him shooting a ton of unassisted threes isn't a sign of great shot creativity-- it's a sign of average decision making. I get that he's a playmaker, but that doesn't cover all of the other deficiencies. He'll be hunted relentlessly in any playoff scenario, and with good reason.

[BackHome]

Have no interest in Murray that ship has sailed and I don't think his ego would jell with Wemby - As far as Tre he is a decent backup but I don't see him with us long term we can easily upgrade with either a rookie or get a seasoned Playoff tested Vet at some point to be backup

[poopbox]

Atlanta is going to want all of their picks back, plus our pick this year, plus the Toronto pick, at a minimum. We’re ed if it doesn’t work out, and Victors championship window closes in his early 20s. No one comes here as a FA, and we will have no way to get a high draft pick.

We need an opportunistic scorer PG who can defend at a high level and distribute the ball. Think Jrue Holiday, Brogdon type. Then you get a scoring wing, and a high level SG with your high picks.

This is like...the only reason to entertain a Trae Young trade. The chances of the spurs drafting a player who turns out to be a star is slim. The chances of another star playing signing here in free agency are almost non existent. Trae is a borderline tragically flawed player, but he is a star in this league. If he wants to come here you have to entertain it cause he might legit be the only one who wants to.

[R. DeMurre]

They realized Murray never made sense alongside Trae and are trying to get some 1st rounders back. I doubt substracting Murray will do much either way for their play and/or record. They'll remain a mid to bad team.

For me, their move to get Murray is the perfect example of a team compromising while trying to cover for a flawed star's deficiencies. The idea was that Trae can't defend, so get a guy who can to play D alongside him... but Murray's advantage as a defender was in guarding PGs, where he had more height and length than the vast majority of opposing PGs. Once he's moved over to SG/combo guard next to Trae, Dejounte is guarding guys with the same or better positional size, taking away his built in advantage.

[scott]

Capela's rebounding would be welcome on this team, but due $22MM next year, ouch. That would be close to $40MM tied up in Collins and Capela.

[Dejounte]

Capela's rebounding would be welcome on this team, but due $22MM next year, ouch. That would be close to $40MM tied up in Collins and Capela.

Swap Collins With Capela. I’m Tired Of Seeing Collins’ Inability To Defend The Paint. Not Sure If Capela Is Good At It Or Whatever But I’m Saying If This Is What It Takes To Get Murray, Then Do It.

[scott]

Swap Collins With Capela. I’m Tired Of Seeing Collins’ Inability To Defend The Paint. Not Sure If Capela Is Good At It Or Whatever But I’m Saying If This Is What It Takes To Get Murray, Then Do It.

Unfortunately, Collins can't be traded until after the season due to the timing of his extension.

[Dejounte]

Unfortunately, Collins can't be traded until after the season due to the timing of his extension.

Son Of A

[Dejounte]

Why Is The Espn Trade Machine Allowing Me To Include Collins? Not That That Thing Is Perfect…

[mo7888]

Unfortunately, Collins can't be traded until after the season due to the timing of his extension.

I'm wondering in KJ is part of this? Kj + Graham + Cedi match almost dollar to dollar

[mo7888]

Why Is The Espn Trade Machine Allowing Me To Include Collins? Not That That Thing Is Perfect…

Its just flawed.. try fanspo

[Davidicus]

or hawks really want to tear it down and want to offload capela's 2 year contract as part of a deal and the spurs have presented a couple of different packages to get it done

cant really imagine the spurs going after capela by himself. his salary is about 20 mil.

if the hawks just want expirings, mcdermott/osman/graham* actually gets it done, in addition to whatever draft capital is going ATL's way. the spurs may as well just send back bassey in that kind of deal, let ATL hang onto him for cheap for the next 2 years to back up okongwu.

unless ATL wants Zollins of course, but that defeats the purpose of dumping capela

Agreed. Only possibility I could think of is ATL sending DJM for a big they like to a separate team, and then Capela for Doug and/or Cedi with maybe picks involved.

[spurraider21]

Agreed. Only possibility I could think of is ATL sending DJM for a big they like to a separate team, and then Capela for Doug and/or Cedi with maybe picks involved.

yeah but theres no good reason for the spurs to trade for capela right now.