Fischer: Spurs Repeatedly Mentioned By NBA Figures As Potential Home For Young

[Spurs Homer]

Today Trae looked like a Hawks' guard version of Zach Collins, lately every deciding game/series he's in, he's a sieve on defense, a turnover machine, and inefficient as a scorer. But oh, he can throw lobs at Wemby

Disingenous....

you know he was coming off an injury and had a wrap on his hand and took it off at halftime...
he also had 3 lobs for dunks - in the first half alone -

with a smaller capela being the recipient - smaller than wemby

and

branham, collins, wesley, vassell, and others are horrible defenders, sloppy turnover prone - low bb iq -

but young would be an issue -

lol

[Extra Stout]

The Spurs with Young as a second banana would be a lot better than they would be in a hypothetical running of it back with the roster they have.

But there’s a huge opportunity cost. I’ve read that one possible strategy for the Spurs is to ac ulate picks and then trade them for a second star. But is Trae Young that star? He comes with a lot of flaws.

You pull the trigger now, and you might consign the Spurs to be second-round playoff fodder like the Sixers. That’s a lot better than where they are now, but I don’t think that’s the goal.

[JPB]

Not wanting to trade for Trae is one thing, that is perfectly understandable I'm not his biggest fan. But its also about the alternatives and Wemby. You dont choose when and what star is available for you. Would I like a Luka or Giannis instead, yes ofc,, but if the alternative is watching that franchise suck some more trying to develop a bunch of rookies, which they've unsuccessfullh done for two years , for another 2 or 3 years, just adding a couple of vets who wont move thé needle that much and will eat cap space too, puttin you on the treadmill at best... Give meTrae... Not even talking about the ACTUAL possibility of getting Garlands or Bridges..

Again you're not stuck with ,stars today in a much more dynamic and active NBA regarding star movement.
Wemby wants to ompete next year, do you want to deny him that possibity or try with Trae, plus some more vets and see where it goes? Are we really ready to watch that team struggle some more years with Wemby in the middle with no guarantees you'll find better opportunities later?

Who here can honestly say he's on board for even a 30 win season next year? We gotta start seeing Vic in meaningfullgames. He's proved his point this year. There's no point just watch him improve in
losing seasons. We know he's gonna Goat level, that's not THE point anymore. Everything should be centered around him and on giving him help, not tryng to develop other prospects or youngsters with no guarantees of success.

[Ginobili2Duncan]

Spurs fans having a hard on for Trae Young is truly one great mysteries to me. He’s a historically bad defender, chucker and not the shooter his reputation suggests. A few years ago his offense was good enough to overcome his poor defense but he’s basically been at league average offensive efficiency now for the past two seasons. If the goal of the FO is to see their names in the headlines in the off season then Young makes sense but not if they’re trying to build a championship contender.

[Extra Stout]

I see the point that with Wembanyama already being a Top 10 player, it’s not a great idea for the Spurs to wait around for several years content to just build through the draft and wait for players to develop. The timeline probably needs to be accelerated, and that would mean trading a large part of the draft pick haul for an established star player.

But Trae Young? He just seems to have a lot of flaws. There’s a reason why Atlanta would want to move on, and it’s not just that he doesn’t mesh with Murray.

[K...]

not necessarily relevant, but my brother says walmart had keldon's gear on clearance.... so trade imminent. did not ask him what part of town he was in, but this would be NW 1604 area , like Bandera RD.

[Guru of Nothing]

I'm still pro-Young, but with added caution. Where before I supported dealing ATLs three picks (plus salary) back for Young, I think my willingness to deal picks has shrunk to 2 FRPs, tops - as if this mattered to anybody. I would also scale back the sense of urgency this off-season because it's not far-fetched to think the Spurs will be in a stronger position to deal in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline. If that leads to someone else beating the Spurs to the punch, well, that might just be the best possible outcome of all because most ATL trade possibilities would likely reduce their win totals in the short term, thus boosting the value of the three 1sts. This also has the side-benefit of allowing our misfit band of yute's another half-season season to develop and earn their long-term roster spot (those who want to blow things up now may disagree), and we'll have some sense of how things are beginning to shake out with this year's rookie(s).

[scott]

I wouldn't pay a Michael Jordan super clone 48.9 that's absurd. That's like a third the whole team salary.

So you're going to let Wemby walk after his rookie deal? Because his extension will be 30% of the salary cap, which right now would be about $56MM to start.

Folks need to get over the sticker shock of some of these deals and come to reality with the cost of good players. It's not like its your money anyway

[scott]

Couldn’t agree more. I’m hoping Mike Finger’s reporting that that Spurs will not be the team to match ATL’s price is accurate.

I keep finding it amusing that people are fixating on Trae almost exclusively for his ability to make Wemby the ultimate lob pass threat. Just silly.

I am mostly out on Trae at this point as well, but this is a mischaracterization of what folks are saying and you should be able to recognize that. No one is advocating turning Wemby into Clint Capela who can only catch and dunk lobs. He'd still have his full repertoire, with the added benefit of being able to cash in on the multiple opportunities per game to get Wemby an easy bucket. Those are all incremental to Wemby's game, not subs utive.

[scott]

Well, it's not like the only choice is trade for Trae RIGHT NOW or hope Julian Champagnie magically morphs into Scottie Pippen and Blake Wesley becomes the next Chris Paul. They can improve the roster without gutting their future draft capital and cap space.

But I've despised the notion of Trae Young on the Spurs ever since this idiotic report came out. He's a coach killing ty teammate and atrocious defender who plays losing basketball. The Hawks are a .500 team with him. They are a .500 team without him. Not that I required one more iota of evidence about what exactly Trae Young is, but when your "superstar" logs a steaming minus 27 in a win or go home game that you lose by 15 while giving up 131 in regulation to one of the most vanilla offenses in the league... you may want to seriously rethink what adding this guy to the Spurs would really look like.

I only wanted to respond specifically to the bolded portion. I think it's important to remember there is a timer on our draft capital, and that timer really starts ticking as soon as May 12 when we know if the TOR pick conveys or not. We could have as many as 6 picks over the next two drafts (this years and next). So, I'm off the opinion that we really should be looking at this summer or the next trade deadline as our best opportunities to cash in some of that capital, because as soon as the picks start conveying the clock enters its final countdown. (Sorry Mitch this wasn't directed at you per se, but you reminded me of this point).

I mean no offense but let us equate Spurs and business. Imagine you take over a company and you have two managers. One (let's name him Hop) used to be an amazing worker and during the heyday of the company he was front and center. But in the past 5-6 years your manager has lost his touch and now is just incompetent at his job and has no control of his employees. The other manager (Ryan Wrong) is in charge of hiring said employees.

Speaking of employees, all of them show up late, aren't in dress code, and never seem to learn or complete basic tasks given to them. They are nice people overall, they are young and it's their first real job. But they have no professionalism and they aren't dependable at all. All except one guy who is your star employee. He always exceeds his goals that you've placed on him. He always comes prepared, you can give him additional responsibilities and he goes even beyond your high expectations for him. The company overall is doing bad and losing money, but they have this one guy who could really grow and expand the business.

Now you have taken over the company, you have set goals and expectations, and trained your team for years, and even after this only one employee is meeting their goals and the rest are still late, still immature, still can't learn/complete basic tasks, and your company is at an all time worst it has ever been... Only Mr. Body would say that getting rid of these bad employees is considered rash and impulsive.

I'll add a 5th one. Spurs make no moves. Sochan plays like he is playing and receives a deal like KJ got. Now we have our cap tied up in a buncha role players in Collins, KJ, Vassell, and Sochan who will never lead us beyond the play-in and probably won't even get us to the play-in. Now in 5 years Wemby can't even reach play-in level and we have our cap eaten away by a buncha mediocre players for the same exact time frame you are spouting.

Trae Young would cost us the exact same as KJ and Collins. He gives us their exact same offensive output points wise, while unlike those two he can actually run an offense. And similar to those two he sucks at defense so it's a wash on that front. He would probably cost us our own 26 pick and either the 25 or 27 ATL pick. That's all his market is for him. It's not even that big of a trade. And he isn't the star player, Wemby is the star player and as long as he shows up, Trae will follow. Btw the dude did lead his team to the ECFs. KJ and Collins led their teams to what exactly?

You forgot that not only do all the bad employees suck at their job, they actively make your good employee's job harder to the point where it appears like they are inadvertently (or maybe even purposely) sabotaging his work performance.

[Kevin]

So you're going to let Wemby walk after his rookie deal? Because his extension will be 30% of the salary cap, which right now would be about $56MM to start.

Folks need to get over the sticker shock of some of these deals and come to reality with the cost of good players. It's not like its your money anyway

Its crazy because LMA made 19.8M his first year with the Spurs and thats Keldon Johnson money now. Top players command 35-50M per year now days. People have to stop living in 2018 for player salaries.

[CGD]

Not even arguing about the pertinence of adding Trae but seeing some spurs fans absolutely not wanting himcos it would 'hurt' the team but trusting the process of developing Wesleys, Branhams or Scchans or wanting Grahams and Mamus to start...

You'd swear some havent watch the team these past two years and realize how awful spurs have been and this roster is, litterally bottom of the league, with nobody yet you'd like tl start on a contender. .Reality check, that team has been badly sucking for 2 years and all they have today is Wemb, a guy who is serious about starting to wiin now.

Picks? Sure but all you have with picks is hope and uncertainty,. Thats not a guarantee in any way. Many teams have had picks these past years and are still nowhere. If you dont pick well, which spurs haven't lately, you're condemned to find the 'right' deal with whoever would actually be interested in yoir picks, with little assets besides to bulk up the trade (lets not overvalue our current players in other GMs eyes). And we're seing what developing picks in a losing culture is giving, players with low BBIQ who don't know how to win. Ask Detroit or Philly about piling up picks.

The 'yeah we suck now but we have picks!!!'' Mantra and proscratination can be tricky and dangerous. Thats betting on a necessarily better furure. But the NBA doesnt revolve around the spurs and other teams are working too. Should have OKC reject the Shai trade to trust the process and build through the draft for 4 years? They pulled the trigger and were right. Now Chet is contending in his rookie year. It's never too early to be compe ive, TP was in his first year too. You dont absolutely have to be patient but simply smart. Wating doesnt guarantee you anything.

Specially, and last but not least, spurs would be badly inspired, but I'm sure they re starting to realize that, to consider they have Wemby locked for his first 7 years in the NBA The guy Is really different on that aspects of things too, and is serious about being compe ive as soon as next year. Vic will make hundreds of millions in his career, if not billions, out of his contracts and endorsments, its not losing a 'few' dozens millions on the table that would keep him here after his rookie deal... spurs are under pressure to give Wemby a winning team soon, the countdown has already started for them.

Or they could hold their powder and trade for a less ty disgruntled star?

Why does it have to be Trae when there will be other players? , in two weeks the national media will start cranking up the Mitc , PG13, and Giannis trade rumor mill. And then there are players like Bridges, Garland, Lauri, Herro, etc etc that will be in all sorts of rumors here soon.

I get it Trae Young lobs the ball.

[JPB]

I see the point that with Wembanyama already being a Top 10 player, it’s not a great idea for the Spurs to wait around for several years content to just build through the draft and wait for players to develop. The timeline probably needs to be accelerated, and that would mean trading a large part of the draft pick haul for an established star player.

But Trae Young? He just seems to have a lot of flaws. There’s a reason why Atlanta would want to move on, and it’s not just that he doesn’t mesh with Murray.

I get that but he might not just be made for the alpha/leader role, which he wouldn't asked to be in SA, while his skills are clearly fitting with Wemby. Thats what you'd ideally get, a creator, passer, shooting, lob master in Trae, with Wemby as the alpha. Vic should average 6=8 lobs a game in the NBA or you're misusing his size advantage. Seeing a Vic/Trae 2 man game is really intriguing. We can't spend another year watching his teammates ignore or miss him on offense and defenses triple teamming him...His life should be much easier on offense and he shouldn't have to.force like he has to sometimes... He has nobody to play with on that team as his 2 man game with Devin is... what 2 man game?

Giving him Trae as a PG would really open up a lot of things for Wemby and this team, then let the kid talent do the rest.

[objective]

Trae Young might be frighteningly highly paid, undersized with bad defense who will cost a lot in the acquiring .... But the alternatives.... Are they much better?

The Spurs had their chance at an underappreciated potential under the radar young free agent in Coby White but blew it chasing bad contracts to take on for draft compensation. Now Coby is one of the best contracts in the league.

Who else is realistic to get?

Dejounte isn't as cheap as people might think with his trade bonus. But he can't throw lobs, doesn't defend anymore or can't at this stage, and is always feuding with frenemies real and imagined. He talks real nice about Pop and Wemby now but you know he's just one tiny supposed disrespect away from deleting everything Spurs from his socials and ranting against everyone.

Darius Garland is just an arguably worse version of Young, same 6-1, max contract, high turnovers disappointment.

Tyus Jones isn't much of an upgrade over Tre Jones, they both are close to 12 points and 7 assists as starters. Tyus is just as small.

Chris Paul could be a caretaker but is so old and washed he could need an undertaker

Quickley didn't really show he was that guy in Toronto and would probably take a Max contract to get him

Then there's the draft

Dillingham might take years to improve enough to get as bad as Trae Young is now on defense

Shepperd might be a combo or 2guard who couldn't handle being the full time point guard

Topic gets to the rim and has size with his expendable neck and beluga head, but he can't shoot or defend

Juan Nunez is an incredible passer who has the vision and mapping to succeed, but has chosen to shoot lefty despite being right handed and as a result can't shoot 3s or even free throws. Because if there's any point guard's shooting philosophy to copy, it's Ben Simmons

And there's other guys who have size but maybe not the shooting or probably aren't real point guards.

Young is not ideal, and it seems like he's not in the cards anyway if Finger is to be believed. But I do think he'd be an upgrade and get the team to a top 10 offense.

And the modern NBA is all about offense. Most of the top playoff teams are top offense teams except Minnesota. Scoring is the name of the game now and Young has been a big part of successful offenses over his career.

[scott]

TBH, I'd rather "blow our load" on someone like Lauri (assuming he'll agree to re-sign, which is a risk), and then have a caretaker PG (for now) like Monte Morris (career .391 3P shooter) with Tre behind him. We don't need our PG to be our second star.

[pad300]

Ok, anyone in this thread saying "I'm only willing to trade 3 picks (or less) for Trae" is functionally saying "No to Trae", because there is no way in the world that ATL will accept less from SAS than all of what they paid for DJ (which was 3 picks and a swap) and MORE (because Trae is a more valuable player)...

So can the bull and just admit, that your position is No to Trae.

[mo7888]

Ok, anyone in this thread saying "I'm only willing to trade 3 picks (or less) for Trae" is functionally saying "No to Trae", because there is no way in the world that ATL will accept less from SAS than all of what they paid for DJ (which was 3 picks and a swap) and MORE (because Trae is a more valuable player)...

So can the bull and just admit, that your position is No to Trae.

Ok....my position is 'No' to Trae...

[Kevin]

TBH, I'd rather "blow our load" on someone like Lauri (assuming he'll agree to re-sign, which is a risk), and then have a caretaker PG (for now) like Monte Morris (career .391 3P shooter) with Tre behind him. We don't need our PG to be our second star.

Love Lauri and they would also get his Bird rights so he would have to leave behind millions of dollars on the table.

Get both Trae and Lauri and we're unstoppable on offense. How do you solve that puzzle? Wemby's all around gravity, Young's playmaking and Lauri's outside shooting as a PF would be almost impossible to stop. They fit together perfectly.

[baseline bum]

Ok, anyone in this thread saying "I'm only willing to trade 3 picks (or less) for Trae" is functionally saying "No to Trae", because there is no way in the world that ATL will accept less from SAS than all of what they paid for DJ (which was 3 picks and a swap) and MORE (because Trae is a more valuable player)...

So can the bull and just admit, that your position is No to Trae.

Not the Spurs fault the Hawks overpaid for Dejounte. What I would offer is their two picks back in 25 and 27, rip up the 26 swap, give them the Chicago pick, and Graham + Zollins as matching salary. Or change the Chicago pick to the Charlotte one back if they want Keldon instead of Graham.

[Ginobili2Duncan]

Having championship aspirations and having Trae Young on your team are mutually exclusive. It’s no exaggeration to say he’s one of the worst defenders in history. He makes James Harden look like Bruce Bowen. There’s a difference between being a really good player but unable to win a championship as a franchise cornerstone and being a losing player that puts up gaudy numbers. Young is the latter. The desire in this thread to get Young is simply driven by paranoia that Wemby will leave SA because of what Kawhi did. The Spurs can do a lot better than Trae Young with their assets. Wemby would be sick of playing with him a third into the season.

[Leetonidas]

Does anyone have actual stats to back up Trae being the worst defender ever or is this something that just gets repeated so much people assume it must be true? Serious question. Im sure he probably sucks since he's a midget but curious what stats people are actually basing this off of

[Raven]

well i knew he was an atrocious player, but he redefined modern badness with this last one.

[CorrectCrusader]

So you're going to let Wemby walk after his rookie deal? Because his extension will be 30% of the salary cap, which right now would be about $56MM to start.

Folks need to get over the sticker shock of some of these deals and come to reality with the cost of good players. It's not like its your money anyway

People just don't understand that the cap goes up and so does the average contract. Penny pinchers in sports are stupid anyway.

[spurraider21]

why settle for Trae?

[objective]

Of the two Washed Brothers, Curry is definitely the preferred option but I doubt he's available at a fair price