9 Interesting Spurs Tidbits from the Harrison Barnes Trade
The Harrison Barnes trade turned out to be a fascinating one (Photo via Twitter)
On Monday, the San Antonio Spurs officially completed the three-team trade that landed Harrison Barnes in San Antonio. Along with the 32-year-old forward, the Spurs received a 2031 unprotected first round pick swap from the Sacramento Kings.
In return for Barnes and the pick swap, San Antonio sent RaiQuan Gray to the Chicago Bulls. By utilizing their cap room to facilitate the sign-and-trade deal that sent DeMar DeRozan from the Bulls to the Kings, the Spurs were handsomely rewarded.
A few intriguing sidenotes emerged during the time it took for this three way trade to be completed:
1) Barnes apparently waived the $3.7 million trade kicker he was owed. Otherwise, the salary cap math doesn’t work on the trade.
It goes without saying that an NBA player waiving a trade kicker is rare. If Barnes would have insisted on the trade kicker he rightfully deserved, the Spurs would have had to release Julian Champagnie and maybe even trade Malaki Branham or Blake Wesley. Instead, Barnes gave up the nearly $4 million on his way to joining the Spurs.
2) Even with Barnes waiving his trade kicker, the math still doesn’t quite work if Chris Paul received the full one-year, $11 million that was initially reported. Thus, it’s safe to say that Paul took less than the reported $11 million to help make the Barnes trade work without the Spurs losing additional assets.
Not only did the Spurs add two veterans who should help teach the youngsters how to win, Barnes and Paul gave up some money to play in San Antonio.
3) The Spurs front office found a creative loophole to complete this trade. The NBA requires that all teams must “touch” when completing multi-team trades. Previously, teams would typically send second round picks that were unlikely to convey — but that practice was recently outlawed. Sending the rights to foreign players who were unlikely to ever play in the NBA was also outlawed.
But instead of sending a second round pick to the Bulls to satisfy the “touch” rule, the Spurs sent Gray. San Antonio had signed Gray to a two-year, two-way contract last season and had him playing in Austin. It’s safe to say the Spurs had previously spotted this loophole and that’s why they gave Gray the second season in the deal. Expect the NBA to eventually remove this two-way contract “touch” loophole.
4) I previously wrote about how I couldn’t figure out what had happened to Gray. He was on the summer league roster but had recently disappeared. It turns out that the Spurs were in the middle of trading him.
Theoretically, if the Bulls waive Gray, he could clear waivers and re-join the Spurs summer league team by the time they begin play in Las Vegas.
5) Overall, this was just a really damn impressive trade by the Spurs. Not only did the Spurs get a player in Barnes who they would surely have been interested in if he were a free agent, the Spurs got an unprotected pick swap with the Kings. In return, San Antonio relinquished virtually nothing.
The only hesitancy regarding this trade is the $19 million Barnes is due for the 2025-26 season. However, again, if Barnes were a free agent, a two-year deal worth $37 million wouldn’t be far away from the type of deal the Spurs would have presented him with on the open market.
6) Keeping Champagnie’s contract on the books is a notable win. Champagnie is due only $3 million in each of the next three seasons. Even better, none of the money is guaranteed. Keeping a guy who started 59 games last season on a deal that pays him approximately 2% of the salary cap is good stuff.
7) To make room for Barnes and Paul, the Spurs did have to renounce Dominick Barlow, Cedi Osman, Sandro Mamukelashvili and David Duke Jr. San Antonio also had to waive Charles Bassey.
But that news isn’t even as bad as it sounds because the Spurs now have access to the room mid-level exception. The RMLE gives the Spurs approximately $8 million to spend on free agents — including any of those players.
Bassey is the only player in that group who the Spurs could lose for a reason outside of their control because he needs to clear waivers before San Antonio attempts to re-sign him. The Spurs can start negotiating with Barlow, Osman, Mamukelashvili and Duke right now. For Bassey, San Antonio needs to wait 48 hours and another team can claim his contract in the meantime.
Considering that Bassey is coming off of a torn ACL and his contract calls for him to make $2.5 million the next two seasons, my guess is he doesn’t get claimed — even though that $5 million is unguaranteed.
8) The Spurs could alternatively use the $8 million RMLE to sign any free agent in the league. Names still on the market include sharpshooters Luke Kennard and Gary Trent Jr. along with bigs Paul Reed and Precious Achiuwa.
9) The Spurs own a total of five first round pick swaps: Atlanta in 2026, Boston in 2028, Dallas and Minnesota in 2030, and now Sacramento in 2031. The swaps from Boston and Minnesota are protected for only the first overall pick, while the rest are completely unprotected.
Sure, maybe the Spurs get unlucky and none of the pick swaps materialize into anything noteworthy. But, man, if the Spurs are able to add lottery picks when Wembanyama is between the ages of 22 and 27, those could be monstrous, franchise-altering events.