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Branham and Blake aren’t going anywhere because they are guaranteed, and offloading them doesn’t increase the cap figure with $$$ to bring in replacements.
Yeah, I think it's pretty safe to say that this is not the same scouting department that made us among the league's drafting elites for so long (which shows in the data - hoping we get an update to this soon: https://braydengerrard.shinyapps.io/Draft_Scores/)and yet gave a big league contract to Cissoko
Branham and Blake aren’t going anywhere because they are guaranteed, and offloading them doesn’t increase the cap figure with $$$ to bring in replacements.
we have the room exception to replace them with
you cant find a better PG than wesley for 8 mil?
Why do we need to jump into the room exception to replace our 4th string PG? Is that roster spot critical enough to cut Wesley and eat his $2.6M, plus dole out another contract out of the exception?
With the acquisition of Barnes, it doesn't look like the Spurs are trying to open up lots of 2025 cap space. Instead they seem to be focusing on 2026, which makes sense because Collins will come off the books then too.
In that framework, it would make no sense to decline the option on either Branham or Wesley. The Spurs can operate over the cap in 2025 and let Branham and Wesley become RFAs in 2026, with the intent to renounce one or both if they need the cap space badly enough.
Unless one or both shows enough promise to warrant an extension, I guess, but neither has so far.
Barnes and his $19M will be just 12% of next year's cap that's projected at ~$155M.
His contract isn't a hinderance to opening cap space at all.
We're at $126M for 25-26 season with 11 guaranteed contracts and the assumption Tre and CP3 enter free agency.
Keldon and Collins will be easily tradeable at $17.5M and $18M respectively.
Declining options for Branham, Wesley and Sidy would get us another $12M in cap space.
We could easily open up as much as $76M in cap space with 6 rotation players on the roster.
That's why Markkanen trade makes so much sense. Even if we max him, we'd have $30M cap space, 7 rotation players and 2 FRPs in '25 draft.
The problem with the Branham and Wesley option part is that the Spurs have to decide on them by the end of October this year, whereas if they want to salary dump their way into significant 2025 space they wouldn't be able to do so very easily until next summer. It might be harder than you think to dump Barnes and Collins and Keldon.
Keldon doesn't factor into my analysis anyway because his contract still has 3 more years on it.
The Barnes and Collins contracts make opening up lots of space in 2026 much easier than in 2025. There's also the downside risk that the Spurs decline the option on Branham/Wesley and one of them blows up this year. I might have the rules wrong, but I think if the Spurs decline the 4th year option then Branham/Wesley would be UFAs next summer; if that's true it's another reason to pick up their options and aim for 2026 free agency.
Man I really wish this dude could stay healthy but I pretty much see him as a Oden at this point. I'll be glad to be proven wrong though
Considering how poor they've been, especially Wesley, maybe they already decided.
And even if they didn't, sending an expiring rookie deal to a tanking team would be easy.
Why would we dump Barnes?It might be harder than you think to dump Barnes and Collins and Keldon.
I don't understand why are people underestimating him so much, he just turned 32 and will probably be our most consistent wing this season.
Keldon is nothing special, but he's still a solid spark off the bench on a declining contract. He's not a negative asset.
Collins is the only contract that needs dumping, he's definitely going to be used in a trade as a salary filler.
The thing with opening cap space is that it's useless these days if we talk acquiring star players and Spurs won't have cap issues getting rotation players in FA.The Barnes and Collins contracts make opening up lots of space in 2026 much easier than in 2025.
Look at upcoming free agents. It's either older players that ask for a 4 year max and Spurs should just stay away from those deals or flawed younger players who aren't worth the max.
Everyone who's worth a damn gets a max these days.
With the money blowing up, noone is rejecting extensions. Free agency for star players is a thing of the past and won't be a common occurrence from now on.
2025 free agency class is obviously really poor except Naz Reid and potentially Markkanen, 2026 is probably even worse with Fox being the only max player Spurs would even consider.
dont have to use it all. was just rebutting the point of your claim that cutting wesley wont increase cap space to improve upon him. we dont need to create space to find a better use of that roster spot. we have it via room exception. could be someone like Fultz
Why do we need to pay Fultz out of the exception, and eat 2.6 M for him to be our 4th string PG? Make it make sense, other than doing something just to do something.
The thing is, we have a bunch of guys on this roster who can be upgraded, but aren't: Branham, Wesley, Mamu, Bassey (my king), Champ, Sidy, That's 40% of the roster.
It's not about upgrading the 4th string PG spot... it's about turning over the roster with low-cost, high upside swings.
We're running back a team with back-to-back 22-win seasons with 12 of the same 15 players, and only one of them is part of the long-term future. It's just a little... passive.
With that said, Wemby is really ing good and I think we'll see some improvement and we did see one line-up in particular really show good results last year... so it's not like our existing roster should be completely discarded... but it's also not good enough to completely stick with (which we're going to a clip of 80% roster continuity... which reminds me to dig up my roster continuity post from last year).
Can't stay healthy
Why waste a roster spot here
We dont need cap room for them. They could be waived and the MLE used to replace them just fine. Or using the 8th pick to have replaced them. Or traded up using seconds to get into late first round. Lots of options.
You expected something different from a super conservative team like the Spurs.
I knew they were going to run it back with most of the same team.
Who are some of these "low-cost, high-upside swings" they can make to replace 6 players on their roster?
I see this idea being constantly repeated, but no one has more than one or two names to replace that many players.
I think they can and will move on from most or all of those guys, but it doesn't need to happen in one fell swoop.
Plus, most of them still have some upside and potential that it might merit keeping them around for one season or more. Champagnie, Mamu and (yes, ST's newest whipping boy) Wesley showed some good things/positive growth last season.
Malaki, Sidy, and Charles all have some strengths, but their weaknesses and injury history (in Bassey's case) is holding them back more, IMO.
The team will have plenty of picks and opportunities to move on from anyone not in their long-term plans. Why not see if adding 2 'winning veterans' can have a positive impact first?
who cares about eating 2.6 mil. i have zero rooting interest in the Holt Family Trust. often times eating guaranteed money is bad business. hurts your cap situation. this isnt one of them.
as a fan, i like it when the teams i like do things that make the team better. Fultz isnt that old, just turned 26, and has been a solid player who still has room to improve.
He's also just a further along version of Wesley with a much worse injury history. That likely won't come for anything less than the full MLE.
And I like Fultz, but he needs to be on a team tons of shooting to be effective. Spurs still don't have enough of that and too many non-shooters as is.
And he is a better player than Wesley - I'm not argue that he isn't - yet he doesn't add anything that Wesley can already provide in spots (as much as ST doesn't want to believe that).
I actually wish the Spurs would've gone after Aaron Holiday or Seth Curry, since they are both volume 3 pt. shooters that could provide a offensive spark (and replace Graham).
The NBA just held a draft, where teams had an opportunity to add prospects to their roster. The Spurs had picks 8 and 35 in this said draft, and used those picks to add zero players.
Are you guys serious?
Why the would you want Fultz when we just drafted a point guard who's a bad shooter?
There's no free agent left who can move the needle for us.
If we can't get Markkanen, PATFO should focus on upgrading Collins if they actually want to win games.
Brook is probably off limits now that Bucks got some good role players and don't need to move him.
I'd be happy if we could get Vucevic. He's got 2 years left on his deal, 20 and 21 million.
Collins, Wesley and some SRPs for Vucevic would be a good deal.
Or just Collins and Branham if they're interested.
He'll be 34 before the season starts, but never relied on athleticism and he'd torch every single bench big in the league.
Yeah, that doesn't replace the 6 guys you named. I'm was against the Spurs dumping those picks, but if Paul was the plan all along I somewhat understand the rational (even if I disagree).
Spurs need to find another rim protector which Vuc doesn't provide at all.
The interior defense will be just as piss poor with him inside compared to Collins. And I'm all for moving on from Collins unless he miraculously plays defense like two or three years ago.
Yeah, Fultz doesn't really bit the bill for the kind of moves you should make to upgrade that last 40% of the roster. But someone like Blake should be completing for his spot against an SRP or UDFA who shows potential, not just gifted a guaranteed place on the team. But, as evidenced by how the Spurs treat SRPs, their two-ways and the SL roster, they don't seem to care too much about the back ends of the roster. Champ, Bassey and Barlow (when they first joined the team) were great examples of effective use of those two-ways and back end roster spots. We'll see what they do with them this year. No more 24-year old G-League reclamation projects please.
He's a bad rim protector, but at least he has legit center size, unlike Collins. And is a way better rebounder.
There aren't any rim protectors left on the market, a lot of playoff teams are trying to get backup bigs without any luck.
You don't need to replace all 6 guys at once, and I wasn't even suggesting we should. Those are just the 6 guys who are easily replaceable. We did replace two of our back-end roster guys though, Graham and Barlow.
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