How folks simultaneously lambast the Spurs for cutting bait from Bertans and signing McDermott astounds me. I wish the Spurs could've gotten some good asset for Davis, sure. And the Carroll deal was definitely a hindsight mistake. But:
A) If Carroll hadn't fallen off, he and Morris were EXACTLY the kind of players folks complained about the Spurs not having for years. Fans acting like the deal made no sense now are likely the same fans who wanted to trade two firsts for Stanley Johnson or Taurean ( ing) Prince in 2019. The Spurs were not perfect (they burned one of those two firsts on Samanic FFS), but they didn't do that bad of a job given their limited information. I wish they could've predicted the future, but Carroll played well and wasn't old enough to expect him to drop off completely.
B) They traded away Bertans and then signed a comparable player for less money later. In the same way that Carroll was a surprise bust for the Spurs, Bertans was a massive bust for Washington after his contract year. The Spurs did good by just not paying that. To put it into perspective: The Spurs spent less money on McDermott, Carroll and Lyles than the Wizards committed to Bertans. Washington did a really good job getting out of that contract. But that's not a situation the Spurs want a do-over for.