The San Antonio thought process and the fruit it's come to bear
With the Kevin Durant and Kristaps Porzingis rumors in the rearview, the Spurs and their newest additions are set to remain steady on the path they've carved.
The churn of a long-term roster-building approach always feels slowest when you’re in the muck of it. Sports are meant to be an entertainment product, and the monitoring of player development only holds the attention of an instant-gratification society for so long before the losing takes all the fun out of the game you love.
But in hindsight (at least for this writer), the Victor Wembanyama lottery feels like it took place yesterday; and now, two years after the superstar was drafted, the Spurs’ grand plan continues to unfold in spectacular fashion.
San Antonio traded for an All-Star point guard while managing to keep its powder mostly dry in February, the springtime ping-pong balls have bounced beautifully three years in a row, it’s got consecutive Rookies of the Year on the roster, and now it’s added two teenagers in Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant whose presences should help put a cap on the bottoming-out phase of the rebuild, health permitting.
The Spurs have arrived in one of the most enviable positions in the NBA, and they’ve done so without rushing to the front of the line before they were ready. To quote newly crowned NBA champion Sam Presti, current Thunder general manager who cut his teeth as a Spurs video guy: “Shortcuts cut long runs short.”
It’s important to recognize the direction in which the NBA is rapidly headed from a roster-construction standpoint. Oklahoma City and the Indiana Pacers, the last two teams standing this season, were arguably two of the three deepest teams in the league along with the Boston Celtics. Between the two sides, only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would qualify as a ‘superstar’ in the eyes of most (though Tyrese Haliburton put together a case with a legacy highlight reel during the tournament), and perhaps most importantly from a big-picture perspective, neither team paid a cent toward the luxury-tax pool — a major key to their success both now and in the future.
Eventually they’ll both be faced with financial decisions, which is common for young, thriving rosters. But with the depth each possesses, and with all the draft picks still tucked away in their coffers, they’ll have opportunities to replenish along the way and avoid the tax hell the new collective bargaining agreement has brought forth to repeat offenders.
In order to avoid the increasingly punitive financial and logistical measures taken against teams who cross the luxury-tax line in consecutive years, it’s critical for any franchise to time its ascent as best it can. In other words, don’t go allocating giant chunks of your cap space to a select few players before the team as a whole is ready to contend for a title, because the penalties incurred when living over the tax line create an environment not even the biggest markets in the NBA can survive. It’s why we’re seeing the disappearance of the big-3 model, and an increased emphasis on stockpiling assets and fostering said depth. The top-heavy approach is failing these days, all while continuity and cohesion within deep rotations have become paramount to success over the course of these marathon seasons.
The Spurs find themselves at that baseline now. They’ve dug themselves out of the ditch they’ve been in for years, and now it’s time to navigate the path toward contention — a place they’d like to remain for the entirety of Wemby’s time in San Antonio.
Anyone who invests themselves in the offseason transactional period no doubt saw the smoke that billowed from the Kevin Durant rumor mill over the last few weeks, along with a little side puff of Kristaps Porzingis. But there was never an actual fire. Just some waterlogged wood chips postseason-starved Spurs fans hoped might catch.
It wasn’t that San Antonio didn’t engage in conversation with Phoenix or Boston, or any other teams that eyed its lottery picks for that matter. But taking and making those calls to get a price quote is simply due diligence. The reality was, a move of that magnitude would’ve represented a stark departure from the roster-building approach it’s been molding for years, and to them wasn’t worth the cost.
Even after the De’Aaron Fox deal, the Spurs viewed their realistic timeline to contention through a two- to three-year window. Wembanyama will be entering his prime by then, and the rest of the young roster and incoming lottery picks will have ideally settled into roles that suit them next to the team’s cornerstone. As entertaining as it would’ve been to watch Durant play with Wemby, giving up a handful of young, talented players along with at least one valuable first-rounder for a 37-year-old who’s making $54.7 million next season and is in line for a massive extension (all while preparing to pay Fox this summer, and leaving room to breathe before backing the Brinks truck into Victor’s front yard two summers from now) would’ve eaten into the depth and cap flexibility they’ve been so focused on nurturing.
Still, I wouldn’t go as far as to say there are no exceptions that would call for a change in process. San Antonio does have a window of opportunity, before it has to start paying the players it’s drafted over the last three years, through which it can absorb contracts without hitting the luxury tax quite yet. The bigger issues with Durant and Porzingis are age and health, not necessarily what they could potentially bring to the team immediately. The former would be a short-term contributor at the expense of long-term flexibility, while there are question marks about the latter’s durability and even fit next to Wemby.
But if you’re able to read between the lines, the aforementioned roster-building approach may take a turn should, say, a certain 30-year-old Greek man in Milwaukee become available. That’s a bridge the Spurs will cross if they ever see it, though. Until then — if that time ever actually comes — it’s full speed ahead with what is now one of the most talented young cores in the league.
Brian Wright was all smiles Wednesday night after the final pick of the first round was announced. San Antonio got the guy at No. 2 it had been set on since the lottery, and was pleasantly surprised when a player it had in the top 10 of its draft board slipped all the way to the 14th slot. It was a good night.
Harper possesses the basketball pedigree and All-NBA upside teams pine for near the top of the draft, while Bryant’s athleticism, physical dimensions and well-rounded skill set make up an archetype the Spurs have coveted for their rotation ever since Kawhi Leonard left town. And while there have been questions about fit, especially in the backcourt, Wright said the team has zero concerns about the new guys falling right into place.
“Positions in this day and age don't matter as much. We just saw playoff where the team that won had a 6’5 wing that guarded the center. And you start to put offensive skill sets together and having multiple ball-handlers, multiple people that can create, multiple people that can put pressure on the rim and make life easier for other players on the floor,” he said. “I think that's an advantage, and I think we can do that for all 48 minutes. So I'm not as concerned about positional overlap as trying to find skills and people that can put us in advantage situations, and be able to play off that.”
Consider this article a recap of events from the last few weeks, and some leftover thoughts on my end. In the coming days we’ll jump into some deep dives on both Harper and Bryant, and we’ll further examine exactly how they will both slide into their roles.
But we can at least take Wright’s quote as a precursor for the articles to come. San Antonio, while still very young with a long road ahead, is beautifully positioned to move in any number of directions going forward. Through shrewd management and some good fortune, it’s gotten past the most difficult part of the rebuild. And with all that talent now in the building, it can more concretely start to map out what comes next.
The core is in place, now it’s just time to develop and round out the roster.
Free agency starts in a few days.
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Great stuff, as always.
Here's hoping Wemby is 100% when camp starts. I see he's not playing for France this summer in order to more fully recover from his DVT (more likely the after-effects from treatment).
The Spurs Way works!