Devin Vassell has to go asap.

[SpursBills]

Yeah, Tobias Harris is a target I've got my eyes on as well. He's a rare 3&D wing who actually checks each of the boxes that the team needs in a construction around Wemby/Fox/Castle. Can hit the 3? Check. Plays defense? Check. Can rebound? Check.

I wish he had a little more size, but other than that Harris is a pretty nice fit.

You mentioned the addition by subtraction in moving Devin, but I think we really need to point out how important it will also be for the Spurs to find a way to get off Devin's long term money.

There are definitely better players than Harris for this team, but it's hard to find a team whose has a need for / would benefit a lot from a guy with Devin's skillset to try and execute a Wright-style win-win trade. You basically need a team who already has lead creation / initiator in place and a lot of athletes with size on the team but who lacks shooting. Detroit is really the best fit, since both Ausar and Holland are bigger and more wing-ish than Castle but struggle a lot with shooting, while Cade's size means that Vassell's lack of physicality won't be a problem and they can run a lineup of 4 guys 6'6"-6'8" around a center. Getting off Devin's long term money is definitely a goal but these win-win trades can maximize value in a trade so you're not just salary dumping him.

Other candidates that make less sense - Orlando (still not sure if Suggs-Paolo-Franz offer enough playmaking), Milwaukee (Portis' probably opts out so salaries are hard to match)

[Bruno]

Regarding Vassell's salary, you had to keep in mind the raising cap and the mainly flat structure of his contract.

Spurs will need to be cautious about contract in 2027/28 and beyond when Wemby will get his extension.

Vassell's contract will be then:
2027/28: $24.7M
2028/29: $27M

The luxury tax threshold in these years will be:
2027/28: $227.4M
2028/29: $250.1M

And Spurs' ownership might even allow Spurs to go a little above that threshold.

If Vassell can go back to his 2023/24 level, he is worth spending between 10% and 11% of your payroll on him.

[TD 21]

Devin as a no-defense backup 2-guard at $27 million a year? No thanks.

Next season/post Paul, they could still get him near 30 mpg in either a mostly 3 guard rotation or a combination of that and him continuing to play some as a nominal SF.

He's not really suited to be a 6th man given his limited creation, but it's either that or trade him because him as a full time SF doesn't cut it.

There are definitely better players than Harris for this team, but it's hard to find a team whose has a need for / would benefit a lot from a guy with Devin's skillset to try and execute a Wright-style win-win trade. You basically need a team who already has lead creation / initiator in place and a lot of athletes with size on the team but who lacks shooting. Detroit is really the best fit, since both Ausar and Holland are bigger and more wing-ish than Castle but struggle a lot with shooting, while Cade's size means that Vassell's lack of physicality won't be a problem and they can run a lineup of 4 guys 6'6"-6'8" around a center. Getting off Devin's long term money is definitely a goal but these win-win trades can maximize value in a trade so you're not just salary dumping him.

Other candidates that make less sense - Orlando (still not sure if Suggs-Paolo-Franz offer enough playmaking), Milwaukee (Portis' probably opts out so salaries are hard to match)

The Pistons, already at a pick deficit and otherwise bereft another starting four option, need Harris the same way the Spurs do Barnes.

[John B]

I’m okay with Vassell as the 4th option. But he would best fit at 6th man and Champ better 3pt shooting and defense at starting 2.

[scott]

Regarding Vassell's salary, you had to keep in mind the raising cap and the mainly flat structure of his contract.

Spurs will need to be cautious about contract in 2027/28 and beyond when Wemby will get his extension.

Vassell's contract will be then:
2027/28: $24.7M
2028/29: $27M

The luxury tax threshold in these years will be:
2027/28: $227.4M
2028/29: $250.1M

And Spurs' ownership might even allow Spurs to go a little above that threshold.

If Vassell can go back to his 2023/24 level, he is worth spending between 10% and 11% of your payroll on him.

In a vacuum, Devin's contract is fine - the problem is that it is almost impossible for him to live up to it at this point due to the emergence of Castle, and specifically how Steph slots into SG.

Devin's best possible on-the-court outcome at this point is to be a 4th option SF, who's playing out of position and will get hunted on defense, or a very high end (talking like 6MOY contender) bench player. Devin's contract is honestly oversized for both of those scenarios.

The only exception would be to say that we're fortunate to have Wemby and Castle on rookie deals so you can afford to splurge a little bit on Devin, and by the time Wemby's extension kicks in (2027-28) Devin's deal will be about 13% of the cap, which aligns with a high end 6th man contract (for reference, Malik Monk is at 12-13% of the cap).

So basically, Devin's really only path to playing up to his deal is to make that transition to super 6th man. I have doubts, but I'd be willing to see what it looks like.

I'm not even a big Cam Johnson fan, but if we could flip Devin for Cam plus filler, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Cam's deal is rightsized for what his role would be (4th option), and ends two years sooner.

[onechance87]

The only thing going for vassell is hes still young.But boy did this guy fall off so fast.Wtf happend to him.

[timtonymanu]

Dev’s role keeps reducing. If he can’t even feast as a 4th option or even if he were moved to the bench, trade his ass. Less 2-9, 1-7 from 3 kind of stats. It’s make or break for Devin. He’s lucky this front office is all up on their charity case mindsets cause any other winning team would have offloaded him already.

[Bruno]

In a vacuum, Devin's contract is fine - the problem is that it is almost impossible for him to live up to it at this point due to the emergence of Castle, and specifically how Steph slots into SG.

Devin's best possible on-the-court outcome at this point is to be a 4th option SF, who's playing out of position and will get hunted on defense, or a very high end (talking like 6MOY contender) bench player. Devin's contract is honestly oversized for both of those scenarios.

On the paper, a 3 guard rotation of Fox, Castle and Vassell sounds good. When Fox is on the bench, Castle can slide to the lead guard spot. Vassell shooting and size is a good complement to Fox and Castle who like to attack the basket. If Fox and Castle play 34mpg, there will have 28 mpg left for Vassell at guards' spots. When the matchup is right and/or Vassell is on a good shooting night, he can also play some SF minutes.

At that stage, I just don't think there is a need to trade Vassell. He fills a need and his contract will be fine in a couple of seasons.

While I don't think Spurs should push to trade Vassell, he isn't either a must keep player. Spurs should trade him in the following cir stance:
- He doesn't get back to a level close to his last year level.
- He isn't fine with being a bench player.
- Spurs received a good offer for him.
- Castle playing the backup PG minutes doesn't work and Spurs add a true backup PG.
- Spurs draft Tre Johnson.

[widowmaker]

I don't think he fits this team anymore he doesn't look for the good to great.

[scott]

On the paper, a 3 guard rotation of Fox, Castle and Vassell sounds good. When Fox is on the bench, Castle can slide to the lead guard spot. Vassell shooting and size is a good complement to Fox and Castle who like to attack the basket. If Fox and Castle play 34mpg, there will have 28 mpg left for Vassell at guards' spots. When the matchup is right and/or Vassell is on a good shooting night, he can also play some SF minutes.

At that stage, I just don't think there is a need to trade Vassell. He fills a need and his contract will be fine in a couple of seasons.

While I don't think Spurs should push to trade Vassell, he isn't either a must keep player. Spurs should trade him in the following cir stance:
- He doesn't get back to a level close to his last year level.
- He isn't fine with being a bench player.
- Spurs received a good offer for him.
- Castle playing the backup PG minutes doesn't work and Spurs add a true backup PG.
- Spurs draft Tre Johnson.

Sorry I saw this late.

I think the 3-man rotation you outline is the best case scenario for Devin, and I'd prefer we begin the audition of Devin as primary bench scorer now to see how he adapts to the role (though he'd slot into a 4-man guard rotation and play some SF minutes this season since CP3 is still around).

I think you've pretty well outlined the steps that would lead to us deciding to move on from Dev, but really the first two (which is why I want to figure it out NOW, and not next season). I think your point about Castle being able to handle backup PG minutes is a good one - but that can be solved for if he's not up to the task and is going to just be a SG - then we just simply sign a backup PG to pick up the 14 or so minutes where Fox needs to sit. I think it would still leave plenty of room for Devin to play 25-30 mpg as the 6th man.

To the point about Castle playing backup PG... his NETRTG is actually worst when he's the sole PG. He's -13.48 without one of CP3, Fox or Tre Jones on the floor with him, but he's +2.86 sharing the court with Paul, +13.56 sharing the court with Tre, and +0.54 sharing the court with Fox (notably, he's -16 when CP3/Fox/Castle are all on the court... let's cut that out). So I think there are valid questions whether Castle can absorb all of those extra lead PG minutes.

[KobesAchilles]

I mean it’s pretty obvious now that we actually have 3 core pieces what does and doesn’t fit on this team. Last year it was just Wemby and we just had to hope someone came along. Now we have Fox and Castle. Our backcourt is set for the next 4 years. We still need a lot of things for this team. A back up Center (cmon Wolf), a stretch 4 (we kinda have that in Barnes) that can rebound. Those guys don’t exactly fall out of trees so good luck there. And we need a 3&D SF.

What we don’t need is a 27 million dollar bench player who plays zero defense paired alongside a 20 million dollar bench player who doesn’t play defense. One of them has to go

[BatManu20]

Mitch only playing Castle 13 minutes has distracted everyone from the fact that vASSell continues the bed. This is pathetic from a $27M/year player in his 5th season. Inexcusable.

We thought maybe adding Fox would give Devin easier looks and make him play better and he's only been worse. Dude just sucks.

[Mugen]

Devin "The Corner' Vassell tbh

[spursparker9]

Trade him for cash and 2 second round picks in the off seasons

[z0sa]

Dude’s dropped off so pathetically, right as he got paid. Son of a

[LeBowen]

Dude’s dropped off so pathetically, right as he got paid. Son of a

Dropped off? He's the same player he was two years ago.



That's not a massive drop, just a bit lower usage.

[scott]

I can't believe it's come to this... but at this rate, Keldon might have more trade value than Devin, all things considered (such as contract)

Edit: forgot to include, Devin Vassell has turned a corner and averages 3.6 3PM/100pos

[scott]

Ew

[SpursBills]

At the time of the Fox trade, I secretly wished that we had included Vassell instead of Collins/Tre just because we could probably save on some draft picks and their contracts ended much earlier. I don't like how correct that assertion is turning out to be.

[Ice009]

What website do you go to, to see who played specific times during a quarter. For example, can you see who was on the court the first 7 minutes the third quarter? Is that something that can be checked?

[RC_Drunkford]

Ew

Spurs player development staff doing work

[scott]

At the time of the Fox trade, I secretly wished that we had included Vassell instead of Collins/Tre just because we could probably save on some draft picks and their contracts ended much earlier. I don't like how correct that assertion is turning out to be.

You and me both, brother. Moving off Vassell and Keldon are becoming more and more important both from the perspective of 1) they aren't very good and 2) they open up a lot of cap flexibility if we can get expirings for them

[LakerHater]

Vassell- 23mins 6pts
Castle - 13mins. 12pts

Mitch Johnson is an IDIOT!!!

[Jordan Jackson]

When Kevin Durant is available via trade - I’d do it in a heartbeat using Keldon and Devin’s contracts. That is a fast way to get off that money, clean their salary cap and get something useful.

Durant would be an expiring at that point. I’m ok with that. I just think the Spurs need to get off those contracts fast. Those guys play losing basketball - no defense.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think the Suns would want that poo poo platter without picks. So it’s wishful thinking.

[quentin_compson]

Ew

Eh, he might still reach Lonnie's level ...