Spurs trade ideas

[itzsoweezee]

The question is how seriously can we take this season's stats? I'm not saying he isn't a good player and that he wouldn't be a great fit, it's that he's playing with the ultimate green light on a team noone really cares about.
They don't need to put the effort in to defend him because it's easy enough to beat the Nets without maximum effort.

Here's my post from a couple of days ago:

I think the spurs have the assets to get both an elite role player and a #2 guy. Maybe I’m wrong, but if the opportunity is available to get the elite role player, they should do it now and not wait until they have their #2 in place. After all, you can’t have too many big, elite three point shooters. And who knows if champagnie’s production this year will carry forward. This is an outlier season for him given the rest of his career

[SpurSpike]

I hope we don't get in this routine where we are just standing pat for the unlikely scenario that one of the games' elite players suddenly becomes available. Would hate for Wemby to have to go through 7 years of subpar surrounding casts because we're keeping the powder dry just in case Ant becomes available.

That's not really what I meant, I agree that Victor needs a #2 to help take some of the scoring burden but I don't want us to blow our load on the 1st borderline all-star that becomes available either. We have other areas that need improving and we should focus on that. If you have a team that is mostly built and are just missing that one piece to push you over the edge it will be more enticing for those upper level players to come over. Its not really an unlikely scenario that one of the games elite players would become available, seems to happen almost every year these days.

[exstatic]

The question is how seriously can we take this season's stats? I'm not saying he isn't a good player and that he wouldn't be a great fit, it's that he's playing with the ultimate green light on a team noone really cares about.
They don't need to put the effort in to defend him because it's easy enough to beat the Nets without maximum effort.

Here's my post from a couple of days ago:

His career TS% is 61, and that’s still really ing good.

If you’re talking scenarios, they won’t be able to closely defend him here, because there’s this guy named Victor that everyone is paying attention to.

[LeBowen]

His career TS% is 61, and that’s still really ing good.

If you’re talking scenarios, they won’t be able to closely defend him here, because there’s this guy named Victor that everyone is paying attention to.

Imo, Cam's fit depends on the rest of the lineup.
We ideally need a triple threat scorer, right now we have noone since Devin looks pretty bad.

CP3/Castle/Cam/Barnes/Wemby doesn't have enough self-creation. Even if you replace a guard with Champ it's still questionable.
Cam would be ideal if we also get Fox.

[exstatic]

The problem with Cam, IMHO, is that he's going to cost a significant price because he is extremely efficient and has a good contract and is overall SOLID... but you're going to pay that price for a 3rd or 4th option on a contending team. I want us to start cashing in our trade chips, but personally I'd rather overpay for a legit #2 than pay (inflated) market prices for a #3 or #4 based on where we are as a team right now.

If we had that #2 in place already, I'd feel differently... but just my opinion is that we either make a big move for that #2 or just (relatively) small cost moves to shore up the periphery. I think someone like Nesmith or Jonas would be relatively small cost but big impact, and may even allow someone like Devin a better opportunity to prove himself. Right now, like everyone else, they are having to overcome the shortcomings of our roster and its an extra burden.

I won’t contest any of those points, because I was addressing only one point in the quoted post: his efficiency.

I think you may be overstating the market cost. There are really only 3 teams with a large amount of stashed FRPs: us, OKC, and Houston. If only a few teams have the currency you want, it becomes harder to extract it. There are some rumors floating about OKC being interested in, but I have a hard time believing they’ll trade regular roster guys plus picks for another guy making $20+M when they have a decently large payroll already, and Chet and Jalen up for extensions this summer.

[scott]

That's not really what I meant, I agree that Victor needs a #2 to help take some of the scoring burden but I don't want us to blow our load on the 1st borderline all-star that becomes available either. We have other areas that need improving and we should focus on that. If you have a team that is mostly built and are just missing that one piece to push you over the edge it will be more enticing for those upper level players to come over. Its not really an unlikely scenario that one of the games elite players would become available, seems to happen almost every year these days.

All good points, but personally I hope we go the opposite approach and focus on that #2 foundational piece first. I think it's easier to add those other support pieces but it's harder to get the #2 guy.

Lots of different ways to skin the cat though!

[scott]

I won’t contest any of those points, because I was addressing only one point in the quoted post: his efficiency.

I think you may be overstating the market cost. There are really only 3 teams with a large amount of stashed FRPs: us, OKC, and Houston. If only a few teams have the currency you want, it becomes harder to extract it. There are some rumors floating about OKC being interested in, but I have a hard time believing they’ll trade regular roster guys plus picks for another guy making $20+M when they have a decently large payroll already, and Chet and Jalen up for extensions this summer.

It is very possible! If Cam only costs 1 FRP, then I'm a lot more interested. It's when we start talking things like an FRP + young talent or 2 FRPs that I bow out.

Like I said elsewhere, I think upgrading Keldon into Nesmith (for example) would be a better (and cheaper) use of resources than upgrading Barnes into Cam, but I could definitely be wrong on that!

One thing I'll contest, however, is that the pool of competing teams is larger than us, OKC and Houston. Yeah, we may be the only teams with stashed picks, but it doesn't take a huge stash of picks to get Cam. Every year we seem teams (perhaps foolishly) dipping into their short reserve of tradeable picks for moves like this.

[LeBowen]

Not all FRPs are equal, they're asking for 2 because those would most likely be late FRPs.
Offer them a Hawks pick and they'd probably accept.

[scott]

Not all FRPs are equal, they're asking for 2 because those would most likely be late FRPs.
Offer them a Hawks pick and they'd probably accept.

My presumption is that the Nets ask is for future FRPs, not 2025 FRPs, where they already have 4 (and part of the reason they took LAL's offer for DFS over MEM's).

I'm of the philosophical belief that any pick beyond 2026 should be viewed through the lens of random variance.

[spurraider21]

I’m still high on John Collins. Would love to see him next to Wemby. Could slot Jeremy to the 3 with HB a focal point of second unit (last DEN prime example of his abilities). Could send out Zollins + Tre and have Bassey and Blake step up for rest of year.

collins has been around for a while (many of us wanted him here when we were still trying to build around murray)... but he also just turned 27 before the season started

utah basically got him for free as atlanta was shedding salary and he's gotten himself back into form after his hand injury. they did well to rehabilitate his value. with that said, he has a 26.5mil player option next year. with his strong play and at his prime age, i would imagine he opts out and could be pretty expensive

think he'd replace sochan in the starting unit, not play alongside him

[LeBowen]

utah basically got him for free as atlanta was shedding salary and he's gotten himself back into form after his hand injury. they did well to rehabilitate his value. with that said, he has a 26.5mil player option next year. with his strong play and at his prime age, i would imagine he opts out and could be pretty expensive

He's not going to get more than what he's on now. He got to Utah because he was seen as a negative contract, now he got some of his value back, but he's not getting more than ~25 million a year on his next deal, maybe even lower if it's a contender.
There's very little cap space available around the league and he'll probably opt into that last year.

think he'd replace sochan in the starting unit, not play alongside him

Sochan is a SF in our starting lineup, Barnes plays the PF role and mostly guards bigger forwards because Jeremy is chasing oppositon's best player around.

I think Wemby/Collins/Sochan would be a solid 3 man frontcourt rotation, Collins can't really start as a center, but he's more than capable for 10 to 15 minutes against backups.
It seems like a lot of money to take back, but Tre+Keldon+Collins for Sexton+Collins would be a big upgrade for us if it can be done with only 1 FRP added.

[spurraider21]

Sochan is a SF in our starting lineup, Barnes plays the PF role and mostly guards bigger forwards because Jeremy is chasing oppositon's best player around.

not to go with the "positionless" meme but there are shades of gray here. sometimes sochan chases around perimeter guys like edwards/luka/booker. but other times he ends up being matched against the opposing 4. kind of depends on who the other team's primary scorer is. certainly offensively, barnes is the 3 and sochan is the 4, if not even a 5. he's been almost exclusively a paint scorer this year while barnes camps out in the corner.

sochan's rebounding has been one of his better attributes this year, beacuse he's gotten adept at boxing out bigs

i think for most purposes he's a 4 except for the occasional defensive matchup that dictates he slide down

[Spurs Brazil]

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San Antonio Spurs

Trade candidate: Keldon Johnson, Guard

As the Spurs' fortunes have risen with Victor Wembanyama's arrival, Johnson's production has trended in the wrong direction. A 22.0 PPG scorer in 2022-23, prior to Wembanyama, Johnson is barely averaging half that figure this season (12.2).

Johnson's decline from a career 35% 3-point shooter to 27% this season is especially mysterious. Given Johnson's foul shooting (76%) is unchanged, he's likely to bounce back beyond the arc and at age 25 could be an interesting candidate for a team looking to execute a low-cost trade.

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/sto...d-all-30-teams

[KingKev]

Lol hopefully other GMs don’t correlate us letting KJ run the show in 22-23 was a critical factor in getting Wemby

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

Rather get Nesmith for a lower price than Cam Johnson. Indiana’s offer is damn good, wouldn’t want the Spurs to compete with that but as a 3rd team to get something out of it it’d be nice.

[exstatic]

.
San Antonio Spurs

Trade candidate: Keldon Johnson, Guard

As the Spurs' fortunes have risen with Victor Wembanyama's arrival, Johnson's production has trended in the wrong direction. A 22.0 PPG scorer in 2022-23, prior to Wembanyama, Johnson is barely averaging half that figure this season (12.2).

Johnson's decline from a career 35% 3-point shooter to 27% this season is especially mysterious. Given Johnson's foul shooting (76%) is unchanged, he's likely to bounce back beyond the arc and at age 25 could be an interesting candidate for a team looking to execute a low-cost trade.

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/sto...d-all-30-teams

I can tell you what broke his shot this year. He had the ball inside the arc, and was being shadowed by a shot blocker. He put up a sky ball/moonshot high arc jumper and made it, but from that shot going forward, he’s putting too much air under his 3pt jumper.

[exstatic]

Rather get Nesmith for a lower price than Cam Johnson. Indiana’s offer is damn good, wouldn’t want the Spurs to compete with that but as a 3rd team to get something out of it it’d be nice.

They’re not comparable players. Cam is a 6’8” forward and Nesmith is a guard. We already have guards sitting on the bench gathering dust, and too many forwards without a 3pt shot.

[KingKev]

Lol hopefully other GMs don’t correlate us letting KJ run the show in 22-23 was a critical factor in getting Wemby

Actually on second thought maybe we SHOULD advertise Keldon’s key role in landing Wemby. Ya’ll wan’t Cooper Flagg? Well we over here have just what you need; Keldon Johnson, certified tank commander.

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

They’re not comparable players. Cam is a 6’8” forward and Nesmith is a guard. We already have guards sitting on the bench gathering dust, and too many forwards without a 3pt shot.

Nesmith isn’t a guard at all. He’s a wing, strong, decent on defence, efficient and doesn’t need the ball.

But anyway, wasn’t comparing him to Cam Johnson, he’s just a guy who appears to be available, cheaper and on a great contract.

[BatManu20]

Spurs need to hope PHX keeps losing more games so they decide to blow it up and trade us KD and/or Booker tbh. They've lost 7 of their last 9 and are now the 12th seed in the West. Their pairing of KD, Book, and Beal simply isn't working and it's not going to. I'm hoping they lose every single game they play the rest of the way tbh.

They have an easier stretch coming up playing the Hornets twice, Jazz, Pistons, Wizards twice, ATL twice and then the Cavs being the only contender sprinkled in there. We'll see how they get through this stretch. But either KD or Book would be a Godsend to this team and no way they run it back again next year with the same group if they miss the Playoffs this year imo. Would be a perfect time for them to sell those guys for young players + draft capital and begin their rebuild for what's beginning to look like a loaded 2026 Draft Class.

[Splits]

The Spurs are competing for a spot in the play-in, and trading for Butler accelerates the timeline around Victor Wembanyama. It could also stunt the development of the third-youngest roster in the NBA.San Antonio has the contracts, draft picks and is well positioned financially to take back Butler in a trade. Because it is well below the apron, San Antonio would only need to send out $40 million in contracts. Not including Wembanyama, the Spurs have seven players earning between $9 million and $30 million.
Over the next seven years, the Spurs have 12 first-rounders and 19 second-rounders available to trade. -- Marks

One trade that works
Spurs get: Jimmy Butler
Heat get: Harrison Barnes, Malaki Branham, Keldon Johnson, 2025 first-round pick (worst of Atlanta, Charlotte top-14 protected, Chicago top-10 protected and San Antonio)

Since Miami likely would not be interested in taking back Zach Collins' contract, San Antonio probably would have to include both Barnes and Johnson in any Butler trade offer. It's possible both could start at forward for the Heat, and Johnson (age 25) could be a long-term contributor in Miami. The Spurs probably don't need to include multiple first-round picks because the one they're sending is likely to be in the teens in June's draft. -- Pelton

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/sto...tions-land-him

michaelscottnogodno.gif

[LeBowen]

Those ideas are pointless because Butler rejected Memphis and Milwaukee, he wants to go to Phoenix.
Hopefully Riley makes him sit the season out.

[scott]

Those ideas are pointless because Butler rejected Memphis and Milwaukee, he wants to go to Phoenix.
Hopefully Riley makes him sit the season out.

Jimmy Butler: I want to play literally anywhere other than Miami...

Jimmy Butler (a few days later): ...so long as it is in one of these 3 very specific places.

[spurraider21]

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/sto...tions-land-him

michaelscottnogodno.gif

as much as im against the idea of a butler trade, if thats the cost of getting keldon and branham off the team... you son of a , i'm in

[LeBowen]

Apparently Grizzlies were close to completing the deal and then Jimmy's agent told them he's not interested.
I wonder which players they were willing to give up. They have too many solid players, we could use some.

As you said, at this point it's so bad that I want a trade to happen just to get rid of some of these scrubs.