The Dejounte dilemma and the casualties of doing business
Wednesday's trade illustrated how cold the NBA machine can be, but the Spurs hope the end game will be worth the discomfort.
There was a palpable level of energy and excitement from Spurs folks on NBA Draft night at the team’s headquarters. San Antonio had just selected three players it had inside the top 20 of its big board with the 9th, 20th and 25th picks, and for the first time in several years there was a sense that momentum had shifted, even for a moment.
But bubbling behind the scenes was a development that threatened to upset the proverbial apple cart in a way that seemed possible and potentially necessary, but in some ways difficult to believe.
Six days later, Dejounte Murray was traded to the Atlanta Hawks, and the Spurs were stacking up future draft picks to throw into storage.
Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer reported the day prior San Antonio and Atlanta were engaged in trade talks involving franchise point guard Dejounte Murray, and that San Antonio was looking for a “Jrue Holiday-like package” (two first-round picks, plus two first-round swaps) if there was to be any parting of ways with its lead man.
The Spurs held their ground, and as the hours dwindled down on the eve of free agency, they got what they demanded from the Hawks: Three first-round picks in 2023, 2025 and 2027, and the right to swap 2026 first-round picks, in exchange for Murray. Danilo Gallinari was also sent to San Antonio in the deal, but the aging veteran is not expected to be long for this team.
Questioning whether or not to move forward with a 25-year-old All-Star may seem preposterous on the surface, but when you consider he’s essentially half an NBA career older than the four teenagers the team selected during the last two drafts, the reality of the situation starts to settle:
For a team with such a young foundation, is it reasonable to expect a surge into title contention during the prime of Murray’s career? Even more critically, do they expect Dejounte and the team to make a substantial enough jump over the course of the next two seasons to justify signing him to a new, presumably very lucrative deal? And FURTHERMORE, even if they do take an aggressive approach in adding players to the roster, will they be able to acquire the kind of talent necessary in a short period of time to contend in a loaded Western Conference?
Even if you answered “yes” to all these questions, the biggest obstacle in the way loomed in the negotiation room. Murray’s contract is set to expire in two years, when he will potentially command upwards of $40 million annually in unrestricted free agency, a massive jump from the $16.5 million he is set to make during the upcoming season. Because he played so well last season and completely outperformed his current cap number, San Antonio had virtually no chance of signing him to a veteran extension, which would have only paid him a maximum of 120 percent of his current deal — nowhere near the amount of money he’ll make two summers from now.
The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement does allow for contract renegotiations and extensions following the third anniversary of the current contract’s signing. But if the Spurs reworked Murray’s deal to allow for an immediate pay raise and extension, a large portion of their cap space would have been swallowed by a non-superstar, and they’d effectively be neutered in free agency during this critical period of time within the Dejounte window.
The next two free-agent classes are relatively dry, the availability of star players on the trade market is always an unknown, and at the end of the tunnel the Spurs saw Murray, unrestricted and free to talk to any team while the rest of San Antonio’s young core was still in the middle of its developmental years. The level of difficulty in acquiring pieces and assembling the kind of team necessary to enter into a contention phase would have been extremely high in such a short period of time, and many of the outcomes of their pursuits in free agency and on the trade market would have been beyond the Spurs’ control.
It would not have been impossible, but to bank so much on the unknown and hope for some good fortune would have been risky as all hell, and Murray walking for nothing would’ve been a disaster. It was never about whether or not the Spurs wanted to pay Dejounte to play in San Antonio long-term, it was about timing during a rebuild, and whether he would’ve even wanted to sign on the dotted line when the time came if the Spurs hadn’t made the requisite leap. It was a dilemma that would’ve held San Antonio hostage, and all for a player who is very good but doesn’t sit on the elite tier of NBA superstardom.
(I must reiterate: Dejounte Murray is a budding star in this league who has not yet reached his prime, but to put all your eggs in the non-superstar basket at this point of the rebuild is a very risky proposition. This stings in San Antonio, and it probably will for a while. But for that kind of haul — one that’s typically reserved for superstars — you have to pull the trigger.)
Two weeks ago I wrote a piece about where the Spurs stand from an organizational standpoint, for which I was told the Spurs do not simply have plans to be perennial playoff participants — that title contention is the goal, and that circumstances over the last few years have not changed that. San Antonio has preached patience throughout this process, and incremental steps or aggressive moves would not come unless they believed the result would be an elevation of the team’s long-term ceiling in accordance with a healthy wins-to-player-cost ratio. The last thing the front office wants to do is get stuck overpaying for less-than-desirable results.
There is plenty of fair discussion to be had about the timing of this reset — that perhaps it should’ve happened several years ago — but these processes are not always linear. The Spurs went from rolling out a veteran roster built around Kawhi Leonard to contend perennially, to forcing older lineups on the floor in an effort to compete for playoff runs. Then, as old contracts expired and young players began to make their marks, the team’s approach began to shift. But up to that point, San Antonio’s hands were tied without much equity upon which to rely.
LaMarcus Aldridge was an aging star who felt the drop-off from the Leonard trade, and whose late-career value on the trade market was no more than pennies on the dollar; DeMar DeRozan, who was brought over in a last-second attempt to fill the void left on the wing in San Antonio, was viewed as a sort of castaway whose playoff performances haunted him and informed the way other teams viewed him as a player. The general demand for what the Spurs had was lacking, and teams were not knocking on the door to blow them away with a gift.
The Spurs may have stuck with things a little longer than should have (or at least longer than many had hoped), but the patience in general has paid off.
DeRozan went through a sort of metamorphosis in San Antonio, emerging from the cocoon a player with a more dynamic offensive game. His trade to Chicago (on an expiring deal, no less) eventually netted the Spurs two future first-round picks once the February trade of Thad Young (who came over in the DeRozan deal) was completed with Toronto; an in-his-prime Derrick White was traded to Boston at the deadline for this summer’s 25th pick and a first-round pick swap in 2028; and on Wednesday, the Spurs got a draft haul for Murray that would’ve been unimaginable at this time last year.
It may have been a long time coming, but San Antonio has taken the plunge, stocked with promising young players and swimming in future draft picks. But this is only the beginning, and with several valuable veterans still on the roster, we may very well see more moves in the coming days.
Dejounte Murray was drafted in 2016 to be the point guard of the future for the Kawhi era in San Antonio, but after multiple unexpected twists of fate, he may end up becoming the piece that built the bridge off the island Leonard left behind.
As rough as the aftershock of the trade will be, the reality is it likely doesn’t change the ETA for a return to the Finals. The stars would’ve had to align perfectly for the Spurs to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy in the coming years had they decided to roll with Murray. And even then, who knows? The balance was fragile, and with a gap in the timeline and middling picks for the foreseeable future, the path toward top-tier talent was covered in weeds and winding through underbrush.
Now, a team that has spent the last two seasons stressing the importance of versatility and flexibility has both in spades. The picks they’ve acquired won’t just be used individually, but in putting together packages as well. An Atlanta pick might not look great right now, but paired with another, higher pick could look wonderful in future trades. On top of that, the 2025 and 2027 picks, along with the 2026 swap, are completely unprotected — meaning they belong to the Spurs outright, regardless of where the Hawks land in the standings at the end of those seasons. These are high-value picks, especially considering how quickly things can change in the NBA. There is no guarantee Atlanta won’t falter in the next three-to-five years. If they do, it could mean a rush of reinforcements for San Antonio as their current young players are entering their primes.
It seems so irrelevant to be talking about picks that far down the line, but these are attractive assets that can be used at any time and in any trade, beginning right now. And perhaps even most importantly, this not only gives the Spurs a chance to build talent, but to have sustained success and longevity going forward — something that’s a priority for ownership.
Losing Dejounte hurts, and the news of the trade hit with the force of a thousand wet blankets. He was the exact type of player that’s long been adored in San Antonio: hard-working, quiet, loyal and focused. And ironically, his explosion onto the scene last season may have ultimately been what led to his departure. Without his All-Star level performance there’s no way the Spurs see this kind of return, and he may still be in town. Now, attention will be turned toward the future, and the hopes of landing Victor Wembanyama — the 7’2 Frenchman who’s one of the most highly touted international prospects we’ve ever seen — in the 2023 NBA Draft.
Going forward it is imperative the Spurs continue to draft and develop players well, manage their cap situation prudently and, oh yeah, eventually find the ideal heir to the Gregg Popovich throne. The timeline is now synchronized and the blueprint is laid out — all that lies ahead is a long, time-consuming construction process.
As cold as it seems to write this on a page, Murray’s greatest value to San Antonio — the basketball team — may have been the asset he became in the end.
But his greatest value to San Antonio — the teammates, coaches, city and fans — was the kind of Spur and person he always was, and still is.