Spurs Extend Qualifying Offers to Jakob Poeltl, Drew Eubanks, and Quinndary Weatherspoon
The Spurs have extended a qualifying offer to big man Jakob Poeltl. (Photo via Twitter)
As the NBA Draft arrives, the San Antonio Spurs have also made some roster moves with regards to several players. On Wednesday, they officially extended qualifying offers for Jakob Poeltl, Drew Eubanks, and Quandry Weatherspoon. All three players are restricted free agents now ahead of the official free agency period beginning.
Jakob Poeltl Presents Interesting Situation with Spurs, Free Agency
On Wednesday (November 18), ESPN’s Bobby Marks revealed a list of players around the NBA who have received Qualifying Offers so far. They included the Chicago Bulls’ Denzel Valentine, Phoenix Suns’ Dario Saric, and San Antonio Spurs’ Jakob Poeltl.
Based on a report from Pounding the Rock, Poeltl can become a restricted free agent by accepting the Qualifying Offer. His base salary offer is due to be $4.6 million due to the fact Poeltl didn’t meet “starter status.” That is defined as either starting in half of the team’s games or playing at least 2,000 minutes in the past season.
The situation as far as Jakob Poeltl goes is that he now gets to decide if the offer when free agency begins this Friday. Other teams can make offers to Poeltl and the San Antonio Spurs will get up to 72 hours to match those offers, or let him go elsewhere.
There’s also the possibility that the Spurs can make an offer of their own. If Poeltl were to accept that, he’d be on a one-year deal with the team, and then would become an unrestricted free agent for the next season.
The 7-foot-1 Poeltl is coming off his fourth season in the league and second with San Antonio. He’s averaged 5.6 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.1 blocks with the Spurs in 17.1 minutes a game.
Eubanks, Weatherspoon Also Restricted Free Agents
As mentioned, the Spurs have also offered Qualifying Offers to both Drew Eubanks and Quinndary Weatherspoon. Each is coming off a two-way contract, with Eubanks having exhausted his. Weatherspoon can still be signed to another. Both players are still early in their careers, so it should be interesting to see where things go.
The 23-year-old Eubanks has been with the Spurs since coming into the league two seasons ago. He saw a bump in his minutes last season, but only participated in a total of 45 games over these past two seasons. Eubanks has averaged 3.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 1.9 boards in 8.6 minutes per contest. He also had one vicious dunk on the Greek Freak’s brother (below).
Quinndary Weatherspoon is coming off his rookie season with the Spurs in which he played in just 11 games. The shooting guard has averages of just 1.1 points, one assist, and 0.6 rebounds in just over seven minutes of time per game.
With San Antonio making the No. 11 pick in the NBA Draft, they were able to add some more young talent to the roster, meaning more players will be competing for time. In addition, there are continued trade rumors involving the likes of DeMar DeRozan, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Patty Mills. Visit our Spurs news page to get more updates about the team, personnel, and players.