Why San Antonio Spurs Shouldn't Trade for Point Guard

The San Antonio Spurs are staring down another losing season, which gives fans a hard pill to swallow: this is how rebuilding works.

Fans of the San Antonio Spurs are spoiled, plain and simple. 

Between 1989 and 2018 the Spurs never had back-to-back losing seasons. The Spurs have suffered four losing seasons in a row and look likely to make that five this season, but fans of every other NBA team have little sympathy for the Silver and Black.

Why? Because rebuilding is part of running an NBA team and thanks to the continuation of excellence between the David Robinson and Tim Duncan eras, the Spurs have been able to avoid rebuilding.

The arrival of Victor Wembanyama gives the Spurs direction, but they still need to build around him and develop the talent they already have. Unfortunately, Spurs fans are impatient and don’t seem to realize that building a contender takes time.

After the Spurs’ most recent loss, in blowout fashion to the Oklahoma City Thunder, there have been rumblings to blow it all up and fire Gregg Popovich, which is an insane take. Whichever way you cut it, the Spurs are simply not good enough to win games. It is not the fault of the greatest coach ever that he has the youngest roster in the league.

Tre Jones (33) is the only tradional point guard recieving meaningful minutes on the roster / © Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Let’s be optimistic and say that Wembanyama is in fact a generational talent who will win several MVPs and retire a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer who spent his entire career in San Antonio. That seems to be the expectation on his young shoulders. He is currently surrounded by Zach Collins, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, and Jeremy Sochan. Sochan, it should be mentioned, is learning a new position and has only had 11 games to figure that out.

Realistically, can fans expect Vassell or Sochan to be the second option on a top-tier team? Probably not. Sochan can be an elite supporting cast member and Vassell would be excellent as a third option, but neither of them are the guy who runs the team. Johnson and Collins have played five and six NBA seasons respectively. Their ceilings have already been revealed: they are low-end starters or high-end bench players, both of whom can have a role on the Spurs once success is found.

Most of the fans’ complaints have come from the overall lack of point guard talent on the team. Sochan is trying his hardest, but if he doesn’t pan out at PG, then the brunt of the offense falls on Tre Jones. Jones is criminally underrated, but he is not the floor general who can lead the Spurs to the promised land.

It would seem that the ideal lineup fans have concocted in their heads is Wembanyama, Vassell, Sochan, Collins, and a point guard who isn’t on the roster yet. The bench unit would be Jones, Johnson, Cedi Osman, Doug McDermott, and Charles Bassey.

Fine. Let’s look at available starting-quality point guards.

The only backcourt players the Spurs could theoretically trade for are Zach LaVine, Alex Caruso, Markelle Fultz, Killian Hayes, or Tyus Jones. Tre’s older brother is the only one who would complement a scoring trifecta of Wembanyama, Vassell, and Sochan. The others are all either too ball-dominant, too injury-prone to lead a team, or just downright bad.

Unless the Spurs flip a trade, the roster they have is the roster they will run with, and that comes with limitations. Moving forward, the Spurs could sign a free-agent point guard, the best options being Lonzo Ball, Jrue Holiday, and D’Angelo Russell.

Holiday is not an unrestricted free agent, he has a player option and will surely stay with the Boston Celtics. Russell is compelling, but he has always enjoyed playing under the bright light of large markets, so coming to San Antonio would be a hard sell. Lonzo Ball could use a change of scenery as he rehabs from a brutal knee injury, but there’s no guarantee he will ever play again.

Okay, so the Spurs don’t have a point guard on the roster that makes fans happy. They are very unlikely to trade for one this season, and the pickings are slim in upcoming free agency. What options are there? Stay the course.

If Sochan develops into an above-average point guard, then the Spurs have answered their problems and can build around a core of Vassell, Sochan, and Wemby. If he doesn’t, well, the Spurs will lose a lot of games this season. That’s a hard pill for fans to swallow, but it will give the Spurs a high pick in the upcoming draft, and they own Toronto’s pick as well. Finding a point guard in the draft won’t be too hard, which gives the Spurs a starting five next season of Unnamed Rookie Guard, Vassell, Sochan, Wembanyama, and Collins/Unnamed Rookie Forward. Either way, the Spurs will have some direction by then.

As for now, fans need to do the difficult thing and sit back. Most rebuilds take five seasons. The Spurs didn’t commit to a full rebuild until last offseason when they traded away Dejounte Murray. It’s only been one season. Unfortunately, the Spurs have a way to go.

That’s how the basketball world works. San Antonians had it easy for 30-odd years. Welcome to real life.