Shams: Spurs Trading Malaki Branham, Blake Wesley, & a 2026 SRP to the Wizards for Kelly Olynyk

[mystargtr34]

Looks like his defensive numbers DFG% inside 10 feet and 6 feet aren’t too bad. Better than I expected anyway. Similar to guys like Aldama, Naz Reid.

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/de...sort=LT_10_PCT

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/de...sort=LT_06_PCT

DFG% inside 10 feet

Harrison Barnes
62.2% on 4.3 DFGA

Kelly Olynik
56.4% on 5.1 DFGA

The gap is even wider in Olynika favour outside 10 feet.

At this point Olynik should be a better rebounder and defender than Barnes. Barnes has a slight edge on shooting still.

[Spurs Homer]

Disagree. basketballreference.com lists his nickname as "Lunch Lady."

lolol

i hope im wrong…maybe he will come off the bench and be fun to watch…but i cringe when i see that headband and that hair tucked behind the ears…

[LeBowen]

The Spurs should always be willing to explore which players work best with Wemby. Duncan played with many different co-stars in his career. Olynyk may not even make it through the off-season if another trade comes along, but he's good enough to deserve minutes. I just made a post with a projected minutes distribution, but you could give Olynyk 12-18 MPG with some tweaks. I don't think the Spurs are looking at him as solely a deep-bench guy, even if Blake and Malaki asked for trades. I do appreciate that they have good center depth though, and I hope they continue that by signing a big to a two-way deal.

We already had too many wings that are expected to get minutes, you can't add Olynyk into the mix even if Bryant spends the season in Austin.

[Mr. Body]

Finally a white thug among all the pretty boys.

[itzsoweezee]

yes! This squad is really shaping up nicely

[rankingtear]

I doubt Olynyk makes much of a difference. A lot of it is combining the 2 expiring for a bigger one to take into the trade deadline.

[T Park]

Eh.

Lmfao this fanbase

[T Park]

Perfect, but now they 110-percent had room for 38 on their roster.

Maybe that should give you a hint

[couchman]

I’d rather start Olynyk at 4 than Barnes.
Similar offensive role but better defense.

[poopbox]

Solid pickup. Olynyk can still play at a position (with a skillset) of need. Finally clears the backcourt logjam: Fox, Castle, and Harper will eat all the minutes.

Blake/Malaki will get more burn in Washington, but not by much. Wizards have 21 players on their roster including two-ways . They are gonna have to prove themselves to stick in this league..

From a Spurs perspective, that 2022 draft is so close to being a gigantic whiff..

Washington currently has Smart, CJ, Tre, Whitmore, Bub, Bilal.

I don't see how either player gets any time on the floor barring at least two injuries.

[Allan Rowe vs Wade]

good move

[BatManu20]

The president and CEO of the San Antonio Zoo is not happy about this. Might need to rescind the trade tbh.

[timtonymanu]

Nice knowing ya Blake, Malaki I guess. Neither had a future on this team despite Blake’s defensive skills.

Not a bad pickup all things considered. Better than getting 50 year old Kevin Love like some were wanting.

[Degoat]

I know he moved onto another summer league team I believe, but I wouldn’t mind bringing David Duke into the fold

[Degoat]

Bring back the chosen one Lonnie Walker lol

[Russ]

Parlaying the 20th and 25th pick in the draft for this is not exactly a triumph.

But they probably had to face the music at some point.

Bottom line, they have tons of great options going forward -- even if they blow a few along the way.

[ChumpDumper]

Bring back the chosen one Lonnie Walker lol

Not the worst idea ever tbh.

[mystargtr34]

Washington currently has Smart, CJ, Tre, Whitmore, Bub, Bilal.

I don't see how either player gets any time on the floor barring at least two injuries.

Bilal and Whitmore will be forwards/wings along with Middleton, George, Kispert. But even then there’s still a logjam at 1 and 2 for Wesley and Branham.

PG: Bub, Smart, AJ, Wesley
SG: CJ, Tre, Branham

They’ll probably trade or buyout Smart and get another big behind Sarr and Vukcevic. Or a bigger 4. Then Wesley and Branham will be the third stringers so they should get some time to showcase.

[CGD]

Watch Branham go ballistic now.

He’ll be their Poole replacement

[exstatic]

Watch Branham go ballistic now.

He shot 40% from 3, 80% from 0-3 feet, and has a nice middie bounce game. He’s awful defensively, but if he gets minutes in WSH, he’s gonna score.

[T Park]

2nd unit now can be Harper/Champagnie/Sochan/Olynyk/Kornet

I’m not starting Geriatric Barnes over Sochan

[CGD]

The president and CEO of the San Antonio Zoo is not happy about this. Might need to rescind the trade tbh.

But in his other post he did say it was time for Malaki to move on, so there is that

[exstatic]

Only thing the spurs should have insisted on was for olynk to

LEAVE the headgear far away from texas!

Otherwise , good move by the spurs and best of luck to branham and wesley even though i was not high on them…

His nickname on his bbref page is Lunch Lady.

[J_Paco]

I know he moved onto another summer league team I believe, but I wouldn’t mind bringing David Duke into the fold

Duke would be a good, cheap stopgap/emergency 3rd/4th PG with SG size.

Even though I think Blake and Malaki have some NBA skill, I seriously doubt either makes it the entire season on Washington. The Wizards are deep at both guard spots and could easily waive either or both guys.

[Chinook]

We already had too many wings that are expected to get minutes, you can't add Olynyk into the mix even if Bryant spends the season in Austin.

You can if you remove Champ from the rotation and move everyone else to a more modest MPG.

Fox (30), Castle (28)
Vassell (28), Harper (24)
Sochan, (28) Johnson (18)
Barnes (18), Olynyk (18)
Wembanyama (30), Kornet (18)

I don't love Barnes starting, but as I said in another post, I think he'll keep starting until he makes them bench him. There's hope that that lineup will be better than last year's opener with Fox's dynamism, Vassell knowing he won't be a lead guard, Sochan being another year removed from the PG experiment and Wemby getting more seasoning. I do like that bench, though. It has a chance to actually be good defensively, and I think Johnson is a good compliment to two young guards holding down the fort. I think ideally people would want his role replaced by Champ, but I don't see that happening. Everyone is playing too few minutes to make a 10-man rotation work, but that's kind of how the regular season works. With injuries, foul trouble and overtime, I would expect most of those guys to average a higher MPG on their stat sheets. But if this is a final transition year with vets giving way in 2026, it feels like a strong improvement over last year.