Wade or Kenrich/Bryant/Champagnie probably eats up all the PF minutes right?

Is Reed playable at the 4?

Sher Thing said:

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Dean Wade still seems like the move to replace Barnes.

Bring back Jmac and that probably does it.

I just don't see where the openings are for playing time unless the Spurs are gonna move off someone like Keldon or something and I just don't see that happeng right now.

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We have two PF slots, one wing slot, one PG slot open.

For PG, my first choice would be stealing Aaron Holiday from the Rockets, but backup choice is Jordan McLaughlin or just giving JaKobi the 2nd round pick deal.

For PF:

Top target would be full MLE for Tobias Harris. Way better than you think on defense. Solid shooter. Veteran leader. Detroit wants to keep him, but if they have to renounce to use cap space, he could be available. Difficulty would be higher minutes demand and also he is older and declining.

Dean Wade is my realistic guy. A 2y deal for 15M total should lock him down.

Secondary target is Kenrich Williams. I think OKC will try to bring him back on a vet min, but I would give up to the BAE (about 2y11M)

Wildcard is Kristaps. If you could lock down Wade or Kenrich for the BAE, it is absolutely worth taking a flier on Kristaps for the MLE on a 1y deal with 1y team option.

Some alternate young targets if we land a guy like Wade or Kenrich:

Zaire Williams from Nets. Really solid defender, questionable shooter. Seems like a Spurs fit.
Spencer Jones - Denver RFA. 6'7 225lb tweener F, but good defender and 39% shooter last year. Denver has cap issues.
Yabusale. He played better in Chicago than New York. Worth a flier for 3rd string as poor man's Naz Reid.
Nic Batum. Pop wanted him for years. Probably great for 5-10min.
Taurean Prince. He's on the downward swing, but a tough defender and can hit threes.

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I would also keep Barnes with however much we have left under the tax.

I think Tobias is a long shot, and so is Kristaps.

Wade+Kenrich is a great duo.

Otherwise, either Wade or Kenrich plus Spencer Jones or Zaire or Yabu or Batum.


Wemby - Kornet - Reed
Wade - Kenrich - Quaintance
Vassell - Carter - Barnes
Castle - Jules - Keldon
Fox - Harper - McLaughlin

Two-Way: Brown, Gillespie, [blank]

superunknown said:

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Wade or Kenrich/Bryant/Champagnie probably eats up all the PF minutes right?

Is Reed playable at the 4?

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I think Reed is only an athletic center. He may be athletic enough to be ok against bigger teams and have Wemby play 4.

I think that Wade/Kenrich eat only PF minutes, but Wade could play as a big SF since he guards 1-5. Julian and Bryant are out of position at PF unless the other team is playing small ball, too. I think it kills us against bigger teams that play real forwards.

Just think its going to be hard to convince multiple guys to sign here when there's no path to playing time. Unless Kenrich is going to be buried on the bench regardless of where he is. Not sure what his market looks like.

I'd rather have Wade though. Kenrich just looks like a worse Champegnie to me. Wade at least brings one great skill with his defense.

Definitely could see them bringing in Batum as the ring chasing vet. Unless Barnes wants to be that guy, but even he may be looking for a slightly bigger role.

Not a lot of minutes to hand out. Especially with Carter Bryant's anticiapated emergence.

You're assuming that they essentially push Keldon out of the rotation. I'm not sure I see them doing that. Not a year removed from 6th man of the year.

What kind of numbers are you guys realistically expecting from Cater next year?

Sher Thing said:

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Just think its going to be hard to convince multiple guys to sign here when there's no path to playing time. Unless Kenrich is going to be buried on the bench regardless of where he is. Not sure what his market looks like.

I'd rather have Wade though. Kenrich just looks like a worse Champegnie to me. Wade at least brings one great skill with his defense.

Definitely could see them bringing in Batum as the ring chasing vet. Unless Barnes wants to be that guy, but even he may be looking for a slightly bigger role.

Not a lot of minutes to hand out. Especially with Carter Bryant's anticiapated emergence.

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Yeah, but I can see Kenrich and Wade knowing they are role players. Both are like 6p guys.

I think it is probably easier to get one of them plus a guy like Batum or Yabu or an upswing guy like Spencer Jones or Zaire Williams that is young and fighting for a job. But they also may want to go to the Kings or something to be guaranteed more playing time.

I think Wade+Yabusale or Batum is completely doable. Then Barnes+McLaughlin.

Sher Thing said:

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You're assuming that they essentially push Keldon out of the rotation. I'm not sure I see them doing that. Not a year removed from 6th man of the year.

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I think he still churns through a lot of minutes in the regular season, but we dont rely on him as much. I do think his minutes drop from 24mpg, though.

Free agent forward Harrison Barnes intends to sign a one-year, $8 million deal to stay with the San Antonio Spurs, sources tell ESPN. The Spurs valued Barnes' leadership and production as he enters a third season in San Antonio, finalizing a new deal with agent Jeff Schwartz of… pic.twitter.com/FzPv5mqoHm

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 29, 2026

The dream is dead

Free agent center Kristaps Porzingis has agreed to a two-year, $40 million contract extension to return to the Golden State Warriors through 2027-28, with a player option in the second season, agent Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management tells ESPN. pic.twitter.com/NZngN3Qv7x

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 29, 2026

Guitarsoup said:

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Free agent forward Harrison Barnes intends to sign a one-year, $8 million deal to stay with the San Antonio Spurs, sources tell ESPN. The Spurs valued Barnes' leadership and production as he enters a third season in San Antonio, finalizing a new deal with agent Jeff Schwartz of… pic.twitter.com/FzPv5mqoHm

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 29, 2026

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Tax Threshold (consider self-imposed hard cap): 201M

Fox 49.5
Devin 27.5
Keldon 18
Victor 16.9
JuJu 16.3
Harper 13
Luke 10.5
Steph 10
Barnes 8
Carter 5.1
JQ 4
Reed 3

12 players for 181.8.

MUST have two more roster spots. Can have 3 more.

MLE 15M
BAE 5M

Not enough to use all of both.

But we can use the MLE+3 vet mins. I think we use less than the full MLE, though.

SanAntonio said:

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What kind of numbers are you guys realistically expecting from Cater next year?

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18 and 8.

Guitarsoup said:

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Free agent forward Harrison Barnes intends to sign a one-year, $8 million deal to stay with the San Antonio Spurs, sources tell ESPN. The Spurs valued Barnes' leadership and production as he enters a third season in San Antonio, finalizing a new deal with agent Jeff Schwartz of… pic.twitter.com/FzPv5mqoHm

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 29, 2026

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Idiots.

Sher Thing said:

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It's fine. If he wants to play the old vet then he's great to have. If nothing else, it's good trade ballast if needed.

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They may have literally just said "ok take Plumlee or Olynyk's chair, we don't care." Its veteran bench fill, that's it.

Sources: The Milwaukee Bucks declined to tender Ousmane Dieng a qualifying offer, which will make him an unrestricted free agent. Bucks have significant interest in re-signing Dieng in free agency. He averaged 11.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists last season for Milwaukee. pic.twitter.com/BD13ckM5tW

— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) June 29, 2026

Another low level French guy. Played with Wemby growing up.

Guitarsoup said:

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The Portland Trail Blazers have made Jrue Holiday available on the trade market, per @BrettSiegelNBA

“Plenty of teams are expected to express interest in Holiday in the wake of Morant being traded to the Blazers, and he has been said to be available in trade talks for Portland… pic.twitter.com/bBLLJGGOAq

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) June 29, 2026

Jrue and Camara for Fox.

How can they pass up on the opportunity to run a Fox+Ja+Dame backcourt rotation?

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Enzo The Baker said:

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FTAG 2000 said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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Free agent forward Harrison Barnes intends to sign a one-year, $8 million deal to stay with the San Antonio Spurs, sources tell ESPN. The Spurs valued Barnes' leadership and production as he enters a third season in San Antonio, finalizing a new deal with agent Jeff Schwartz of… pic.twitter.com/FzPv5mqoHm

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 29, 2026

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Idiots.

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Yea real idiots for the Spurs to sign Barnes to a low commitment one-year deal. It's not like he is the only nba champion on the roster who the young guys really respect.

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Bring him back sure. But for half that.

We aren't going into the lux tax. We need a starting pf who won't be punked by a team like the Knicks in the playoffs. That lux tax level is basically a hard cap for this ownership group.

It feels like a little bit of patting ourselves on the back after the finals run with these contracts. This is what the Spurs have done for a long time, so not unexpected. Play the long game, pay their own more than the market suggests, keep that continuity and your internal development going.

I would be fine with this if we had won it all. I just worry we still miss that key clutch time veteran that can get a big basket and a physical/shooting PF that gets us over the finish line.

Could have had $20M+ for that PF by making Champ play out his contract and offer Barnes the minimum, but that's not the Spurs way.

I think Champ starts at PF and we basically run it back. Not even sure we go after a Wade/starting level player. Maybe Champ gets paid $15M per to be a backup but I doubt it.

Hope Champ works on his shooting on the move and his closeouts on defense. He is still young and on the rise. Got to trust the development here. If he hits 40% and defends the perimeter a touch better they will look like geniuses. If we still have a PF gap, lack key vet leadership in crunch time and don't get back to the finals, then not so much. Time will tell.

If we accepted Julian's TO and renounced every FA including Barnes, we would have had less cap space than the MLE that we still have available to use. These signings had zero effect whatsoever on our ability to sign a FA PF.

If we get some internal development from Carter and he's more consistently playable as a physical wing then our needs are basically met.

Wemby
Juju
Vassell
Castle
Fox

2nd unit

Kornet
Barnes
Carter
Keldon
Harper

And then we have Reed and Quaintance earning roles eventually also.

When you look at it like this, it's hard to see where playing time comes from for a free agent that signs here. Maybe a Dean Wade makes sense, but I don't think Tobias Harris wants to come here to be the 6th option on offense. If Carter makes any sort of jump from year one to two, the minutes get really tight unless we have some injuries.

We want that perfect physical 4 that can shoot, but it doesn't seem like the Spurs FO is thinking that way. They think we've already got the pieces in place it seems.

Quote:

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Could have had $20M+ for that PF by making Champ play out his contract and offer Barnes the minimum, but that's not the Spurs way.

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Not true. We would be at 160.5M with

Fox 49.5
Devin 27.5
Keldon 18
Victor 16.9
Julian 3
Harper 13
Kornet 10.5
Castle 10
Bryant 5.1
Reed 3
JQ 4

Then add 1.3M in min salary place holders for 3 players after renouncing everyone.

164.4M

The cap is 165M. We would have had about 600k in cap space and would have acted as an over the cap team.

Per Spotrac’s Keith Smith, the #Spurs tendered a two-way qualifying offer to David Jones Garcia and a standard qualifying offer to Harrison Ingram.

Both will be restricted free agents this offseason. #PorVida

— Matt Guzman (@mattgzman) June 30, 2026

AggieEP said:

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If we get some internal development from Carter and he's more consistently playable as a physical wing then our needs are basically met.

Wemby
Juju
Vassell
Castle
Fox

2nd unit

Kornet
Barnes
Carter
Keldon
Harper

And then we have Reed and Quaintance earning roles eventually also.

When you look at it like this, it's hard to see where playing time comes from for a free agent that signs here. Maybe a Dean Wade makes sense, but I don't think Tobias Harris wants to come here to be the 6th option on offense. If Carter makes any sort of jump from year one to two, the minutes get really tight unless we have some injuries.

We want that perfect physical 4 that can shoot, but it doesn't seem like the Spurs FO is thinking that way. They think we've already got the pieces in place it seems.

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I wouldn't rule out Tobias, Wade, or Kenrich, though.

Getting Wade + Thybulle would be a freaking home run.

Which $20M PF did you have in mind?

So I don't follow the cap stuff much. I assumed if we are paying Julian over $15M next year and Barnes $8M and we could have paid Julian $3M and vet minimum on Barnes than that's $23-$3M = $20M. Is that not how it works?

I would have traded Fox or Johnson for a PF upgrade if one was available and tried to get a better shooting backup point guard via Free Agency. Think Naz Reid would be great on this squad for one player that was available. I think Porzingas would have been worth a flyer.

Backcountry Birds said:

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So I don't follow the cap stuff much. I assumed if we are paying Julian over $15M next year and Barnes $8M and we could have paid Julian $3M and vet minimum on Barnes than that's $23-$3M = $20M. Is that not how it works?

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Not at all. The cap is set at a certain l number based on total basketball revenue divided in half divided by 30 teams.

We have bird rights to sign our players and keep them. That is what we used on Julian and Barnes. We were operating as an over the cap team regardless.

What our real limiting factor is the luxury tax line of 201M. We are going to stay under that. Once you are over it 3 of 4 seasons, the $1 over = $1 in tax jumps to $1 over = $3 tax and you need to stay out of the tax for two years straight to get out of the repeater tax. So we are trying to not be in it this year and next year if possible.

So don't expect us to take on bad salary or long salary because we will want to stay under it next year when Wemby is on his extension.

Backcountry Birds said:

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I would have traded Fox or Johnson for a PF upgrade if one was available and tried to get a better shooting backup point guard via Free Agency. Think Naz Reid would be great on this squad for one player that was available. I think Porzingas would have been worth a flyer.

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IF ONE WAS AVAILABLE. I think most of us would make a trade if it didn't torpedo our overall talent level and keep us from being a contender next year. Fox for 13/6 Naz Red (even though it doesn't work as a trade) would have downgraded the talent level of the team significantly.

Jerami Grant, Julius Randle... lots of awful options out there.

I feel like I'm back in high school calculus trying to understand this salary cap stuff.

Thanks for the explanation on the cap. That makes way more sense on these signings.

Hard to say, who is or isn't available at PF. It's all speculation from us without knowing the specifics. Maybe nobody was available. If Champ improves to be a 40% shooter, Castle, Harper and Wemby all tick up a percentage point or two, then we self solved one of our biggest issues. If Harper becomes the clutch player he showed down the stretch, Fox returns to clutch player of the year and Wemby finds a go to shot then same thing there.

Just don't want to miss this 1-2 year window to steal a championship by just running it back and hoping for better results, although that may very well be enough.