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Trade Idea, #2 and Jeremy for Alex Sarr and #6(draft Kon Kanupel)
On second thought, I'd revise the draft capital portion to Nets and Spurs retain 26 and 14 respectively, leaving Suns with just 19.
I still maintain that it'd cost the Spurs 2 to get the caliber of player(s) I suspect the Suns will covet though. Isbia inexplicably doesn't care about the draft and is consumed with trying to remain pseudo compe ive in the interim.
Spurs own 1sts project as mid - late going forward, the Hawks '27 projects as mid as well (no incentive to tank or good enough offers to part with Young) and the swaps sound nice, but are so far out that in a league this volatile are impossible to predict.
Trade Idea, #2 and Jeremy for Alex Sarr and #6(draft Kon Kanupel)
Double no
A fun table I stumbled across by accident: https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/trades.fcgi
Can you guess the one team we've never traded with?
One of my favorite pages, tbh
That's a great trivia question.
I was able to narrow it down to 9 fairly quickly, then I got stuck. I was pretty sure the Spurs had traded with 4 of them in the past and I guessed one of the remaining 5. Turns out the right answer is one of the 4 I threw out.
That is like trading one gold for two stones.
I think Spurs can help facilitate a KD trade. Nick Richards worth a few second rounders? Upgrade over Bassey?
kobyz is timvps troll. I have thought that for years
I have also theorized for years that timvp was running ducks
Having alts to drum up more activity isn't a bad move
I thought everyone already knew that I'm all of the accounts. This site is just me talking to myself.
SHUT THE UP
Phoenix need to waive salary to exit cap
Is it possible the spurs sign a scrub to a 10M non guaranteed contract and send it in a trade? So the other team can just waive salary
This loophole has been closed for a while now.
How about adding KD + Collins?
Devin to Utah
Keldon + Barnes + Malaki + Wesley + 14 to phoenix
KD + Collins to SA
I don't think Collins makes sense with Durant. I wouldn't want KD playing the three at this point of his career, and I don't think I want Collins to be a swing big who plays a lot of center. As much of a Collins fan as I've been historically, I really don't love him as a target at all. But I definitely don't love him in this deal. The good news is that Phoenix would probably love to have his contract in place of Vassell's. So you could do:
Vassell to Utah
Durant to SA
Collins and Barnes to Phoenix.
The Jazz a guy we're pretending they want.
The Spurs get Durant while not having to use up all of their good salary ballast
The Suns get pure expirings and presumably some assets for Durant
Fox, Harper, Wesley
Castle, Branham
Champagnie, Johnson
Durant, Sochan
Wembanyama
presumably 14 would be going out in this deal, but the Spurs would have 38 and seconds to move around the draft. Then they'd have the MLE, LLE and those expirings to continue to add to the team. I honestly like the team better with Vassell on it, but Champ seems like he'd be a decent player to slot into that lineup.
I guess we're just giving up on the idea of defense and rebounding?
Wemby's gonna have to step up his rebounding (in general, but especially) with Durant on the team. We know he's a consistent threat to grab 20 boards when he puts his mind to it, and with Fox and Durant on the team, he should have more energy to dedicate to the task. Sign Portis with the MLE and draft the best defender/rebounder with the other pick the Spurs should have. There should be some good candidates in the middle of the draft. But ultimately, the Spurs HAVE to start coaching guys to perform better. Guys missing rotations and not boxing out isn't a talent issue. Yes, the team should look to add personnel that can help, but you can't outsource defense or rebounding. It's something everyone on the court is responsible for, and if guys like Castle, Sochan, Fox and Champ can't carry their weight, then that's a much bigger problem than the team lacking specialists. As mentioned before, the team will still have multiple avenues to improve the team after the draft.
Interesting how you've put the responsibility for defense and rebounding on everyone except for the old guy on a SuperMax that you're bent on acquiring
It's not that interesting. Durant, for all of the talk in this thread, was an average defender last year. His rebounding rate would put him either third or fourth behind Wemby, Sochan and Johnson. He'd be third behind Wemby and Champ for defensive win-shares. Like, sure, he should and hopefully would be better on that end on a team with more options and playing a more supporting role. He's never been tremendous at it, but he'd be the second-best shot-blocker on the team behind Wemby. He's also one of the best offensive players in NBA history. I don't know what KK's been on with his Durant takens, but KD hasn't been a liability to call out.Interesting how you've put the responsibility for defense and rebounding on everyone except for the old guy on a SuperMax that you're bent on acquiring
I also didn't put the onus on Harper. He, like Durant, would also have to play his part, but neither was on the team last year, so they weren't really part of what I was saying. The team needs their players to try harder and play smarter. If the role-players need the Spurs to bring in guys to help them make rotations and box out, then that's a problem. Castle, on a team with Fox/Durant/Wemby, can't be an inefficient scorer and ineffective defender. The same is true for Vassell if he survives the trade or Champ if he's going to be penciled in at that starting position. The team's been bad defensively for too long for it to not be mainly a coaching issue, so I think the team would see the most progress if they could figure that out rather than hoping acquring good defenders can paper off their historical issues.
EDIT: My rankings above removed players who aren't going to be on the team next year.
Last edited by Chinook; 05-29-2025 at 09:52 PM.
We don't have to pretend this. Your first instinct to not list Durant as one of the players who need to pick it up on defense or rebounding was correct... because he's not going to. It's a bottom third percentile defender (not "average"). He's not a rebounder. He's not going to become one. It's fine to acknowledge this. Trying to brush it aside by pointing out he'd be third or fourth in rebound rate on a team that was terrible at rebounding is as impressive as winning world's tallest midget.
But you're bent on bringing a guy to our team who provides the thing we don't really need (scoring) and doesn't do the things we do need (defense and rebounding) and hope everyone else does those things (which they should do... our coaches should do a better job of coaching them to do those things). It's just funny that your first instinct was to completely absolve Durant of any responsibility while putting on the onus on everyone else in the lineup and label them as "not carrying their weight".
You're just inadvertently highlighting the flaw of this relinquishing desire to add Durant to the team.
Collins doesn't fit next to KD. The player you want as a front court pairing should be PJ Washington. Better defender, more mobile and costs 10 million less this season, giving you more room to fill out the roster.
Or.. I wasn't pretending, and I have a history of comments talking about the need for the guys who are already on the team to be coached to scheme and to stop making the mental mistakes that have plagued the team for years. Defense is about scheme and buy-in more than personnel. It's one thing to cover for a star who isn't a lead defender. It's another to have role-players who are bad defenders and who don't box out, and the Spurs have been developing their guys to be the latter for a long time now.
I also find it weird that you're assuming Collins is a better rebounder than Portis and suggest that Collins/Durant is somehow a better attempt to address your desire than Portis/Durant would be. One is adding a key vet without trading anyone away. The other is a blunt solution to a problem that has to be fixed through coaching first.
And yes, the Spurs problem is this offense more than defense. Come on.
Yeah I don’t know if I agree that defense is our main problem…or at least, defense as it pertains to the areas where KD would come into play.
We had a top 10 defense when Wemby was on the court. The issue was having no legit backup rim protection and then obviously the fact that Wemby missed the 2nd half of the year.
KD was probably a slightly below average defender last year but I don’t think it’s crazy to think that he can be average in a better environment surrounded by above-average guard defenders + Wemby’s interior presence. I certainly don’t think he’s some sort of noticeable downgrade from guys like Barnes/Keldon/Vassell.
If the Spurs get a competent backup big I’m really not overly concerned with our ability to be an above-average defense (elite with Wemby on the court, average when he’s sitting). I am concerned with our shooting and ability to force teams to not just go all-in on stopping Wemby. Maybe we’ll be fine if Fox/Wemby can be the duo we thought + Castle takes a step forward + Harper turns out to be legit, but I still think we could really use a guy like KD and giving up 14/Vassell/Keldon isn’t some huge loss IMO.
I do agree rebounding is a major issue though, and KD isn’t much of a solution there. Just feel like that’s probably easier to solve for elsewhere vs. getting an elite offensive threat like KD. Maybe Vic putting on some muscle + us getting an actual backup C could turn us into an average rebounding team (admittedly wishful thinking).
All in all, I’m not dying to get KD but for the commonly discussed packages we’d be giving up I think it’s a fairly easy decision. Just really don’t feel too bad about losing Vassell/Keldon and for all we know the Spurs are going to try and trade away pick 14 anyways.
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