Offseason preview, Part 2: Spurs have choices to make as they pray to the lottery gods

San Antonio hopes to land its foundational piece this summer, but with a large handful of current contracts set to expire, it's time to start identifying a supporting cast.

Photo courtesy of CW35.

Here’s Part 1 of the offseason preview, in case you missed it: Likely roster locks ahead of the 2023 offseason.

It makes sense to view the Spurs’ current situation through the lens of a homebuilding project, where the choice of paint is generally the last decision made throughout the entire process. It’s an important one, but until you’ve installed flooring and cabinets, it doesn’t make sense to splash the rest of the interior with a coat of color that doesn’t match.

Without a centerpiece in San Antonio — a role they certainly hope to fill this summer — the Spurs are in a position where they might have to make early financial decisions on that paint job. If they fall outside the top three or four picks in the draft (depending on who you talk to), they’ll still be facing an uphill battle in terms of establishing that foundational piece; but with more than a handful of expiring contracts needing attention in the coming months, it may be time to start pre-emptively tying the room together as best they can.

In one hand they’ve got Tre Jones and Keita Bates-Diop, two workhorse role players who have proven themselves to be legitimate NBA contributors regardless of team situation. Whether it be playing big minutes during a rebuild or sinking into a more defined role for a contender, their futures in the league are secure.

In the other, the Spurs have a handful of wild cards. Sandro Mamukelashvili — armed with an intriguing skill set and a very Spursy personality — can best be described as a “fun” player at this point. He does cool stuff on the floor, but we still just don’t know how consistent and impactful he can be given team’s circumstances upon his arrival. Same goes for Julian Champagnie, whose game is more predictable and structured than Mamu’s, but with only a small sample of work in the portfolio is clearly still unproven.

And then there’s Dominick Barlow, who Gregg Popovich affectionately called a “neophyte” during exit interviews. If anyone claims to know what kind of player he’s going to be, they are seriously stretching the truth. He can do a little bit of a lot of things, but he does so while looking like a baby giraffe on the court.

All of this is to ask the question: Do you start paying the young but proven commodities that are already in house? Or do you keep the focus on the groundwork and shift toward further development of the newest players? It’s important to note that while the Spurs currently have roughly $47 million in practical cap space, that number dwindles all the way down to $7.3 million once cap holds are included. They still have money and flexibility, and at least one of those cap holds (Romeo Langford’s $16.9 million) is likely to disappear, but they do not have the ability to just spend indiscriminately. It’s time to start paying people, and they’ve still got a lot of roster left to build.

There are 15 active spots with the big club, and 18 total now that the league’s new collective bargaining agreement has included an extra Two-Way slot, so San Antonio has room to work. But it currently owns three picks in the upcoming NBA Draft (one first-rounder and two second-rounders) and only has so many minutes to go around. This team is still deep in its rebuilding process, and players need to play. So while depth is never a bad thing, the Spurs have to prioritize at some point.

Finding a foundational piece is the most difficult part of the rebuilding process, but identifying the right supporting cast is what eventually leads to winning in the margins once the core is settled. And while said core is pretty far from settled at this juncture, the Spurs want to be in position to hit the ground running once it is.

But timing that timeline is a tricky proposition.