The San Antonio Spurs Are Aiming Big - And That's A Good Thing
The San Antonio Spurs were in a weird spot. They finally had a breakout campaign from one of their young players, Dejounte Murray, and almost immediately after the season they flipped him to the Atlanta Hawks.
To the naked eye, one might believe they're just tanking. And that naked eye wouldn't be wrong, which we'll get back to later.
But there was also the issue of the lack of guarantee in Murray's next contract being with the Spurs.
Because Murray signed a modest contract worth around $16 million per year, weird and outdated NBA extension rules (that allows a team to start a new deal at just 120% the value of the last completed year) made it complicated for the Spurs to lock him further. Murray, who averaged a near triple-double, is looking at a max contract, or close to it.
The Spurs would have had to let Murray test unrestricted free agency in order to retain him, like the Chicago Bulls were forced to this summer with Zach LaVine, and there were nu guarantees that Murray would have stuck around.
So instead, the Spurs pivoted.
The organization is now in full-on Victor Wembanyama mode. They're going to play the kids (Jeremy Sochan, Blake Wesley, Malaki Branham, and Josh Primo) a ton of minutes, hoping to use this year as a crucial development sandbox, while they rack up losses.
This is where the skeptic in you will accurately point out that the Spurs will have just a 14% chance of winning the lottery, even if they become the league's worst team.
Why bother, then?
It's a fair critique. They were right there, having finally developed a star, and have a group of young players to follow suit. Why not just stick with that to see how it goes, instead of opting for a scenario that has an 86% risk of not being materialized?
There are a few answers to that, starting with the notion that there are other players in the draft outside of Wembanyama.
Scoot Henderson is a hot name, who had tremendous upside in his own right. Listed at 6-foot-3, but possibly taller, the 18-year-old guard is supremely athletic, has a wonderfully advanced pull-up game for someone so young, and already has 21 games of G League experience before heading into another season with the Ignite before turning pro.
Getting Scoot would be a major win for the Spurs, and one that easily justifies the trading of Murray, especially when taken into consideration the contractual complexities, which hopefully is going to be a key order of business during the active CBA negotiations.
There is, however, another major selling point in opting for the tank, despite a lackluster 14% chance of winning big.
It's Victor freakin' Wembanyama.
Is that a simplistic reason? No. Not even slightly. As an NBA organization, you understand what type of upside this young man has, and you do not care one iota about the odds. You put yourself in the best possible situation you can, which is the 14% chance, and you roll from there. If you don't win the lottery, you can look yourself in the mirror and know you at least tried.
Quite frankly, I applaud the approach. The Spurs are clearly realizing what their best path is towards a return to relevance, and they've decided to walk it. It's brash, it's wishful, and it's slightly crazy, but it's the right path.
I get what you're thinking. Why would an NBA organization, that uses carefully measured data, and has thousands of meetings over the course of a season to discuss the future, take such a careless approach?
Because sometimes, there's a player that just makes it worth throwing caution to the wind. Sometimes, you have to go for it, regardless of chance. Hell, how do you end up dating the prom queen anyway? You don't do it by standing in a corner and looking down your shoes.
The Spurs are out there, on the dance floor going full peacock, to swing as big as they can. They're going to look bad and severely uncoordinated while doing so. They will even be outright unwatchable at times. But when the clock turns midnight, they could be right up there with three fellow suitors, hoping to get lucky.
I can, as the kids say, respect the hustle.
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