Why isn’t San Antonio a popular FA destination? What can the city do to change that?

[Poolboy5623]

All this top free agent talk in here...I've been watching the Spurs almost 30 years. I can count the number of free agents on one finger(prime free agents) and that one is Aldridge. Am I missing anyone??

[BSfromTX]

Worst place to ask for advice imho

LMAO.. so true

[SpursBig3s]

There is definitely nightlife and great restaurants. Is that night life on par with Austin? No of course not, but then again not many cities have nightlife on par with Austin. The Pearl Southtown, and various other spots downtown have good bars. The north side has a couple nice spots as well. The issue is that we don’t have specific streets like 6th street or Rainey that are the dedicated bar streets

St. Mary's has about 2-3 blocks worth of bars but yea, you wouldn't see any Spurs players on that strip

[John B]

We have a All-Star who is not a mute, and PATFO support him in recruiting, people will play here. As long as they’re winning and we have this charismatic All-Star recruiting, maybe any of DJ, White or Lonnie?

[R. DeMurre]

All this top free agent talk in here...I've been watching the Spurs almost 30 years. I can count the number of free agents on one finger(prime free agents) and that one is Aldridge. Am I missing anyone??

Robert Horry, Brent Barry, Michael Finley, Bruce Bowen... One strength the Spurs have exhibited is re-signing their own free agents. Ask Cleveland, Miami, Toronto, and OKC how important that is...

[Poolboy5623]

Robert Horry, Brent Barry, Michael Finley, Bruce Bowen... One strength the Spurs have exhibited is re-signing their own free agents. Ask Cleveland, Miami, Toronto, and OKC how important that is...

Not quite...

[Hoops Czar]

Robert Horry, Brent Barry, Michael Finley, Bruce Bowen... One strength the Spurs have exhibited is re-signing their own free agents. Ask Cleveland, Miami, Toronto, and OKC how important that is...

RJ, Mills, Gasol, Forbes, Matt Bonner.…. Det core strength to re-sign their own free agents.

[R. DeMurre]

RJ, Mills, Gasol, Forbes, Matt Bonner.…. Det core strength to re-sign their own free agents.

uh..... Duncan, Ginobili, Parker.

[SpursDynasty85]

Become more like Austin or wait until San Antonio and Austin are one in the same metropolitan.

[Hoops Czar]

uh..... Duncan, Ginobili, Parker.

Got lucky in the draft with Duncan but I can almost say beyond a shadow of a doubt that Parker and Ginobili would not be future hall of famers if it wasn't for Duncan. They'd just be a couple of good players playing for an average team in a small market.

[UZER]

All this top free agent talk in here...I've been watching the Spurs almost 30 years. I can count the number of free agents on one finger(prime free agents) and that one is Aldridge. Am I missing anyone??

And he wanted out as soon as he got here.

[R. DeMurre]

Got lucky in the draft with Duncan but I can almost say beyond a shadow of a doubt that Parker and Ginobili would not be future hall of famers if it wasn't for Duncan. They'd just be a couple of good players playing for an average team in a small market.

Impossible to say. How could you know either would not have played for the Knicks, Bulls, Lakers, Celtics?

[Maddog]

San Antonio spurs are one of the, if not the most successful franchise in the past two decades. Spurs fans had the luxury of winning les and be a winning team for such a long period of time. Trust me. Y'all are lucky.

How about a thread about why ST attracts so many feebs who want to start a clever discussion so badly that they actully put the word "Discuss!" up front?

Do you really not understand the differences between big market cities and small market cities, OP? Do you really think there is "something we can do" to change SA into a big market city? Discuss!

San Antonio has two distinct disadvantages that can't really be fixed
1. It's small as pointed out Metro area is 24th and TV market even lower (this translates into how much extra players can make in local endorsements)
2. In part related to no. 1- the ownership/revenue doesn't allow them to go way over the tax. Typically when teams sign a big FA they are still looking at going way over the tax down the road as the lower rookie contracts expire. GSW took advantage of a one time rapid increase in the luxury tax threshold to sign KD. However they are now way over the Tax. Many large market teams local TV contract easily helps absorb some of these issues.

That said the Spurs have done well, including over the past 5 years signed a prime FA.
Also go back and look at past big FA signings and see how often they've worked out.
https://www.basketball-reference.com....cgi?year=2018
Take a look at FA signings over the last few years- you have to focus on those that changed teams- Other than KD not many had impact.


A related topic to discuss is that the Spurs and others get little reward for finding and developing talent. In the playoffs there are several players the Spurs drafted or found and helped develop that they subsequently loss with either no compensation (Baynes, Joseph) or significantly unequal compensation (the nephew and Green).

[Gagnrath]

In order to RE-sign with someone, don't you have to be signed with them in the first place?

No your contract can be traded to that team.....

[Xx_SpursNation_xX]

Austin peaked 15 years ago. It's too big now and the traffic is too horrible