Official/Directly Sourced 2025 Spurs Offseason News & Notes

[scott]

Thought it might be helpful to have a central repository of official and "directly sourced" Spurs news and notes going into the offseason. By "directly sourced" I mean a story that contains direct quotes from members of the Spurs organization (players, coaches, front office), not just speculation.

If the Spurs ever do an end-of-season press conference or any other media availability I'll also post edit this top post and post it here. No speculation or analysis in this intro thread, but this should spur discussion in the comments.

Starting off, the Express-News dropped 3 articles last week (use the quick copy/paste method to get past the paywall) with direct quotes from the subject players and teammates.

• Will Keldon Johnson endure another offseason of trade rumors? by Jeff McDonald, April 16, 2025: https://www.expressnews.com/sports/s...e-20279036.php

• Why Spurs' Devin Vassell is ready for reduced role next season by Tom Orsborn, April 17, 2025: https://www.expressnews.com/sports/s...t-20279268.php

• Why the Spurs are putting trust in Jeremy Sochan for summer of 'good vibes' by Mike Finger, April 17, 2025: https://www.expressnews.com/sports/s...d-20279782.php

More to come as available.

[scott]

The Sochan article is the least "newsworthy" I guess, mostly it's just about how Branham, Castle and Vassell are going to England and Spain for a weeklong trip that Jeremy organized. Finger tries to bridge that into a broader idea that the Spurs should trust Jeremy. Kind of a stretch... but it's the offseason.

The Devin and Keldon articles are a lot more interesting to me, because they signal to me that 1) Devin either realizes or has been directly communicated with that he is going to be a 3rd or 4th option going forward and 2) the Spurs and Keldon love each other, but both side probably realize that he isn't core to the on-the-court product and that he'll be moved if the price is right.

[Ice009]

Thanks for the thread and links.

What do you mean by the quick copy and paste method? Do you mean highlight all the text and copy it before the subscription message pops up? Page seems to load up too fast before I can highlight the text.

Edit: Looking at those articles, they're bringing everyone back . Doesn't look like they're even going to try to make any big trades or changes. My hope now is that the basketball gods help us out in the draft lottery.

Also, this site is loading slower and slower. I can't handle it anymore. Is there any alternative sites we can go to if this place doesn't improve?

[Dejounte]

The Sochan article is the least "newsworthy" I guess, mostly it's just about how Branham, Castle and Vassell are going to England and Spain for a weeklong trip that Jeremy organized. Finger tries to bridge that into a broader idea that the Spurs should trust Jeremy. Kind of a stretch... but it's the offseason.

The Devin and Keldon articles are a lot more interesting to me, because they signal to me that 1) Devin either realizes or has been directly communicated with that he is going to be a 3rd or 4th option going forward and 2) the Spurs and Keldon love each other, but both side probably realize that he isn't core to the on-the-court product and that he'll be moved if the price is right.

The Jeremy article also signals him coming off the bench and how there’s nothing wrong with it… paraphrasing.

[Jordan Jackson]

Edit: Looking at those articles, they're bringing everyone back . Doesn't look like they're even going to try to make any big trades or changes. My hope now is that the basketball gods help us out in the draft lottery.

I’d be shocked if any of Vassell/Johnson/Sochan are moved. As long as Pop is in charge - coaching aside, he’s still the president - this “core”’will remain intact. He told you they were part of core. Believe him.

[Dverde]

[Extra Stout]

Eric Zhang is fake

[R. DeMurre]

Every approach has it adherents and successes, but sometimes it's frustrating to watch the "skip no steps/ pound the rock" approach and reconcile it with a team like Golden State, who've made aggressive moves multiple times over the years to stay successful-- pursuing Durant after winning 73 games (an easier one), getting Wiggins, who became an important piece in their last championship, and now landing Jimmy Butler. They're not the favorites to win it all, but it's impressive to see them in the mix after all of the injuries and turmoil of the past few years. Some people dismissed them after the '21 season, but they have a ring and continued relevance to show for taking the intelligently aggressive approach over the conservative patient continuity angle. Granted, it cost them a ton of money, and will be much harder to do in a league with more punishments for going over the salary caps.

[Leetonidas]

this guy is definitely a ST poster

[Leetonidas]

this guy is definitely a ST poster

[scott]

Thanks for the thread and links.

What do you mean by the quick copy and paste method? Do you mean highlight all the text and copy it before the subscription message pops up? Page seems to load up too fast before I can highlight the text.

Edit: Looking at those articles, they're bringing everyone back . Doesn't look like they're even going to try to make any big trades or changes. My hope now is that the basketball gods help us out in the draft lottery.

Also, this site is loading slower and slower. I can't handle it anymore. Is there any alternative sites we can go to if this place doesn't improve?

As soon as the page loads up, quickly hit CTRL+A and then CTRL+C

About the site... I think we should start thinking about backup options. Maybe a Private Subreddit?

[scott]

Every approach has it adherents and successes, but sometimes it's frustrating to watch the "skip no steps/ pound the rock" approach and reconcile it with a team like Golden State, who've made aggressive moves multiple times over the years to stay successful-- pursuing Durant after winning 73 games (an easier one), getting Wiggins, who became an important piece in their last championship, and now landing Jimmy Butler. They're not the favorites to win it all, but it's impressive to see them in the mix after all of the injuries and turmoil of the past few years. Some people dismissed them after the '21 season, but they have a ring and continued relevance to show for taking the intelligently aggressive approach over the conservative patient continuity angle. Granted, it cost them a ton of money, and will be much harder to do in a league with more punishments for going over the salary caps.

yeah, there seems to be this tendency among fans to view success through the lens of a dynasty built by homegrown stars and nothing else. I wonder if that is the Front Office's approach as well.

[Splits]

As soon as the page loads up, quickly hit CTRL+A and then CTRL+C

About the site... I think we should start thinking about backup options. Maybe a Private Subreddit?

I created a site back in the day which some of us would jump to during outages but I gotta dig up the url

[poopbox]

Every approach has it adherents and successes, but sometimes it's frustrating to watch the "skip no steps/ pound the rock" approach and reconcile it with a team like Golden State, who've made aggressive moves multiple times over the years to stay successful-- pursuing Durant after winning 73 games (an easier one), getting Wiggins, who became an important piece in their last championship, and now landing Jimmy Butler. They're not the favorites to win it all, but it's impressive to see them in the mix after all of the injuries and turmoil of the past few years. Some people dismissed them after the '21 season, but they have a ring and continued relevance to show for taking the intelligently aggressive approach over the conservative patient continuity angle. Granted, it cost them a ton of money, and will be much harder to do in a league with more punishments for going over the salary caps.

One thing you forgot to mention is that Lacob constantly puts pressure on the warriors front office to improve the team, something I have my doubts the Holts are doing with our front office.

[rjv]

apples and oranges. warriors know they're at the end of the curry window and have to make whatever moves they can to compete for another le. spurs are the beginning stages of building a franchise around Wemby. get back to me about GS when steph and draymond are no longer there.

[exstatic]

Every approach has it adherents and successes, but sometimes it's frustrating to watch the "skip no steps/ pound the rock" approach and reconcile it with a team like Golden State, who've made aggressive moves multiple times over the years to stay successful-- pursuing Durant after winning 73 games (an easier one), getting Wiggins, who became an important piece in their last championship, and now landing Jimmy Butler. They're not the favorites to win it all, but it's impressive to see them in the mix after all of the injuries and turmoil of the past few years. Some people dismissed them after the '21 season, but they have a ring and continued relevance to show for taking the intelligently aggressive approach over the conservative patient continuity angle. Granted, it cost them a ton of money, and will be much harder to do in a league with more punishments for going over the salary caps.

GS built their team through the draft, homegrown, for the first two les. OKC appears to be on that path, too. It’s a good path.

[poopbox]

GS built their team through the draft, homegrown, for the first two les. OKC appears to be on that path, too. It’s a good path.

Eh. The guy the whole team is built around and might win mvp was traded for

But they did hit on their most important draft picks, Chet and J Will.

[R. DeMurre]

GS built their team through the draft, homegrown, for the first two les. OKC appears to be on that path, too. It’s a good path.

OKC’s best player was acquired by trade, as was Hartenstein, after interior defense and rebounding were seen as shortcomings in last season’s playoff exit.

Boston, after some draft good fortune, traded for their #3, 4, & 5 guys in White, Holiday, and Porzingis.

[diego]

Every approach has it adherents and successes, but sometimes it's frustrating to watch the "skip no steps/ pound the rock" approach and reconcile it with a team like Golden State, who've made aggressive moves multiple times over the years to stay successful-- pursuing Durant after winning 73 games (an easier one), getting Wiggins, who became an important piece in their last championship, and now landing Jimmy Butler. They're not the favorites to win it all, but it's impressive to see them in the mix after all of the injuries and turmoil of the past few years. Some people dismissed them after the '21 season, but they have a ring and continued relevance to show for taking the intelligently aggressive approach over the conservative patient continuity angle. Granted, it cost them a ton of money, and will be much harder to do in a league with more punishments for going over the salary caps.

Seems like your glossing over the warriors mistakes over that period, the famous two timelines and how they went from a masterful (with some cap e/curry injury contract luck) draft build + Durant to wasting several years, whiffing on high picks and mismanaging guys like Poole- overall, they did very well to win their last ship and Wiggins was key, but I'd still say they mismanaged the situation and ultimately get carried by the 2/4 Durant years, but in the 5 years after that they have 3 missing playoffs entirely and without the 22 chip there wouldn't be any argument they mismanaged their situation.

I love jimmy but barring freak injuries they're not sniffing the finals again.. 4 rings in 15-18 years with curry is a good result but considering the contracts and picks they had I'm not sure the aggressive approach is validated

[exstatic]

OKC’s best player was acquired by trade, as was Hartenstein, after interior defense and rebounding were seen as shortcomings in last season’s playoff exit.

Boston, after some draft good fortune, traded for their #3, 4, & 5 guys in White, Holiday, and Porzingis.

I didn’t mention Boston, because you seem to be bashing teams that build primarily through the draft, or at least the idea, and as you pointed out, they didn’t.

No team builds 100% through the draft. Even our first le team started a journeyman FA SG ( Elie) and a SF who was (re)acquired via trade in Elliott. The successful ones recently have drafted a high percentage of their roster, and most of the important pieces.

[KobesAchilles]

I want an official Spurstalk pact where we agree not to post Jermey Sochan shooting workouts in the summer. As well as articles talking about Vassell learning his new role on the team. Sochan will never be a shooter and Vassell will always be a chucker who plays zero defense.

[R. DeMurre]

I didn’t mention Boston, because you seem to be bashing teams that build primarily through the draft, or at least the idea, and as you pointed out, they didn’t.

No team builds 100% through the draft. Even our first le team started a journeyman FA SG ( Elie) and a SF who was (re)acquired via trade in Elliott. The successful ones recently have drafted a high percentage of their roster, and most of the important pieces.

I'm not bashing anyone. I'm just saying that being overly cautious has its own problems, and over-reliance on a pla ude like "pounding the rock" can be a problem sometimes when being intelligently aggressive is what's needed to take advantage of situations where an impactful player is available. Like you said, no team builds 100% through the draft, so sometimes it's necessary to "strike while the iron's hot" (there you go-- another pla ude!) in order to get things done. If Golden State or Boston insisted on pounding the rock and continuity and skip-no-steps, they wouldn't be in the positions they're currently in. The Fox move was a nice start, but outside of that Wright's history is one of being overly conservative and cautious.

[ambchang]

GS built their team through the draft, homegrown, for the first two les. OKC appears to be on that path, too. It’s a good path.

They also fired mark jackson despite how popular he was with the players and brought in Steve Kerr, who had not prior head coaching experience but was a respected basketball analyst.

[The Truth #6]

Feels like this thread might evolve into simply bemoaning the lack of official statements, or the veracity of them.

[R. DeMurre]

I haven't seen many mentions of Yabusele, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. He's French, and knows Wemby from their Olympic team. I don't know anything about their specific relationship, but if they're friendly, that could be a factor. He's 6'8", shot 38% from 3 and 61.6% from 2. Not the worst option for depth if he's somewhat inexpensive and Wemby actually wants him here.