SAN ANTONIO — Dejounte Murray is still leading this young Spurs roster toward the play-in tournament, even with GM Brian Wright trading away one of his best teammates at the deadline.
San Antonio had their most active trade deadline in decades, maybe ever, and managed to acquire draft picks and maximize financial flexibility without blowing up a roster that has shown fight and promise. The balanced approach to team building has yielded impressive returns, and deserves a closer look.
Let's go back to the offseason, when the Spurs had a ton of cap space and DeMar DeRozan walking to the exit.
Before anything happened there, San Antonio sent the draft rights to Nikola Milutinov into the void of the Russell Westbrook trade and got back Chandler Hutchison, who was promptly cut, and Detroit's 2022 second-rounder which should be in the low 30s this year. The Spurs helped facilitate the mega five-team deal and wound up netting nearly a first-round pick for free.
The next day, they signed and traded DeRozan to Chicago in return for Thaddeus Young, Al-Farouq Aminu, Chicago's protected first-round pick in 2025, the Lakers' second rounder in 2022, and Chicago's second-round pick in 2025.
San Antonio cut Aminu and held onto Young until two hours before the trade deadline, leading many to speculate if there was even a market for the veteran big man. More on that later.
San Antonio wanted Doug McDermott, and agreed to a sign-and-trade deal sending a 2023 second-rounder for the veteran sharpshooter, Indiana's 2023 second rounder, and a second-round pick swap in 2026.
Wright's decision to bring veteran sniper Bryn Forbes back on a cheap one-year deal turned into a mid-season trade for Denver's 2028 second-round pick and Juancho Hernangomez, who stayed long enough for a few cups of coffee before he got flipped for Utah's 2027 second-rounder and Tomas Satoransky's expiring deal.
From start to finish, Forbes' second stint in San Antonio provides a window into what this front office values at this point, and how they're working to achieve those goals. They knew they needed help with shooting if they were going to exceed expectations, but wanted to maintain flexibility for outcomes other than a dark-horse run.
At some point, it became fairly clear that the Spurs are hoping to develop their young guys by giving them the responsibility of fighting for the play-in. Forbes didn't really fit that M.O., so San Antonio sent him to space the floor for another MVP in Jokic, took on a few contracts that other teams wanted to move on from, and got a few picks for their trouble.
Those picks will eventually be used on guys who are currently reaching the point in school where they start putting letters in math. Maybe they haven't even picked up a basketball yet, but hey, that's what the future is for.
In turning Forbes's deal into two picks and Satoransky, San Antonio made two mid-season trades for the first time since they swapped Maurice Cheeks for Rod Strickland and Chris Welp for Uwe Blab in 1990. If there are any sadistic trivia hosts reading this, you're welcome.
Those moves were merely an appetizer for what the Spurs had in store for deadline day.
It began with the expected: Wright finding a deal for Thad Young. San Antonio sent Young's expiring, Drew Eubanks, and Detroit's 2022 second-rounder to the Raptors for their 2022 first-round pick and Goran Dragic. Remember, they essentially snagged that Piston's pick free of charge in the offseason. By adding Young and Eubanks and helping the Raptors avoid tax issues, Wright turned that free money into a pick that should come through in the middle of the first round.
If you look at it through the lens of the Kawhi Leonard trade, the Spurs have now managed to turn that into the following:
- DeMar DeRozan for three years of production and leadership
- Jakob Poeltl
- Keldon Johnson
- 2022 Raptors first-round pick
- 2022 Lakers second-round pick
- 2025 Bulls first-round pick
- 2025 Bulls second-round pick
If Wright stopped there, a lot of Spurs fans would have been happy with the moves that kept the entire main rotation intact and flipped the pieces that didn't fit for long-term assets. He couldn't have done a much better job of loading the war chest without disrupting current operations.
Then he shipped Derrick White up to Boston and shocked just about everybody, including Dejounte Murray. Just like that, "We like the group we have" jokes evaporated into thin air. White has grown into a versatile, starting-caliber two-way guard, a glue guy on and off the court, a fighter through and through.
White heard it from Gregg Popovich himself, but that can only take so much sting off of the reality that his time in the trenches with the Spurs family has ended after five years. White has struggled with his shooting efficiency this season, but clearly been top-three in terms of importance to San Antonio.
Here's how he ranks on the team in a variety of important areas:
- 30.3 minutes (3)
- 14.4 points (3)
- 5.3 3PA (1)
- 2.8 FTM (1)
- 3.3 FTA (1)
- 86.9% FT (3)
- 49% of baskets unassisted (3)
- 18.5% of threes unassisted (2)
- 5.6 assists (2)
- 12.1 drives per game (2)
- 1 steal (2)
- 0.9 blocks (2)
- 1.7 deflections (2)
- 0.9 loose balls recovered (2)
- 0.38 charges drawn (1, third in NBA)
- 7.3 contested shots (2, second for NBA guards)
White's versatility and value are hard to argue with, and the Celtics gave up a lot to put him next to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. San Antonio got back Boston's 2022 first-round pick, a 2028 first-round pick swap, recent lottery pick Romeo Langford, and veteran 3-and-D guy Josh Richardson.
But in trading the team's third-most important player this year, is that a decision to tank? Will it kill morale in the locker room? In many ways, moving White was the most extreme move that Wright could have made without waving the white flag on the season.
Dejounte Murray earned his spot in the All-Star game by leading the Spurs as their triple-double machine and defensive ace at the point guard position. Jakob Poeltl has played like Rudy Gobert at center, forming a formidable pick-and-roll pairing with Murray while anchoring the defense.
White could play off the ball next to Dejounte, but also created more offense for himself and others than anyone other than Murray. The tandem was tough on defense, and staggering them allowed the Spurs to pester the other team's primary initiator and keep a true point guard on the floor for 48 minutes.
It was a duo that fans and the players themselves had waited a while to see unleashed. They shared the floor for 934 minutes this season, and outscored opponents by 2 points per 100 possessions in that time.
Murray has ascended to stardom, and Poeltl is a perfect partner with a totally different skillset and shaky depth behind him. Trading either without getting back star-level return would have sent San Antonio tumbling toward more ping-pong balls.
Derrick White possesses a unique combination of traits that make him a good, sometimes great basketball player. He's smart enough to know the right play, committed enough to put his body on the line, and skilled enough to execute it. No single player will replace his production or intangibles, but if the Spurs had to move on from one of their current top three while minimizing how much it rocked the boat, he was clearly the guy.
Devin Vassell entered the starting lineup, bringing length, spacing, and a budding offensive repertoire. Between the deadline and the All-Star break, San Antonio's starters have been one of the best five-man lineups in the NBA. Their offensive rating of 130.2 is nuclear, fed by an unsustainable 49% shooting from three. They're allowing just 103.3 points per 100 possessions, which is better defensive efficiency than the best team in the league.
The Spurs are 3-1 with wins against beatable teams, but the proof of concept is there. Vassell's offense is still almost entirely on his ability to space the floor and attack closeouts. It fits neatly next to Murray, as Vassell roves the wing with Keldon Johnson and Doug McDermott.
More playmaking responsibility will now fall to San Antonio's All-Star, and consolidating that around him seems like a challenge he's up for. In the past five games, Murray is averaging over 23 points per game on better than 50% shooting, hitting almost 36% of his threes and adding 11 assists to just 1.4 turnovers per game.
It appears that the biggest issue for San Antonio will be managing the minutes when Murray grabs a breather, as the bench will now be without both White and Vassell.
Lonnie Walker IV will need to step up in the final few months of a contract year, and he's shown signs with 17+ points in the last three games in a row. It's only the second time in his career he's done that.
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Richardson is having a career year and hitting 40% from deep, and should get some run before the summer when his contract will become one of those very tradeable expiring ones. Langford is a talented young guard who couldn't stay healthy in Boston, another developmental dart for this team. Satoransky can provide additional depth before his deal comes off the books.
Trading Derrick White was hard to do, for basketball reasons and for reasons much bigger than that. He will be missed in San Antonio, and is well on his way to being loved in Boston. However, trading White did not gut the Spurs' chances of fighting for the play-in the way trading Murray or Poeltl would have.
Since the end of last season Brian Wright has signed and traded DeMar DeRozan and sent out Derrick White, Bryn Forbes, Drew Eubanks, and a pair of second-rounders. White is really the only guy on that list who seemed like he'd be in San Antonio's rotation long term. Here's what the Spurs got back:
First Round Picks
- 2022 BOS
- 2022 TOR
- 2025 CHI
- 2028 BOS (swap)
Second Round Picks
- 2022 LAL
- 2023 IND
- 2025 CHI
- 2026 IND (swap)
- 2027 UTA
- 2028 DEN
Players
- Doug McDermott
- Josh Richardson
- Romeo Langford
- Tomas Satoransky
The 2022 NBA draft class has as star-studded a top three as we've seen in years, as Chet Holmgren, Paolo Banchero and Jabari Smith could all be franchise cornerstones. The Spurs will have their own pick which could wind up in the lottery, plus Toronto's and Boston's, and could potentially try to package them and trade up.
San Antonio will also have financial flexibility, with Sportrac projecting that they'll have the fourth-most practical cap space in the league with the ability to create more. They could target a high-level free agent, or go for more of a variety of tradeable contracts like they did last season. In any case, they'll have options.
Wright's aggressive pursuit of picks drew a number of comparisons to OKC general manager Sam Presti, but Wright's approach to asset management here is notably different from the Spurs alum.
San Antonio is loading up for the future in both the short and long term, but they aren't shutting down their best players and subjecting fans to years of suffering in a race to the bottom to do it.
The goal of making it to the play-in tournament has not changed, and the Spurs could potentially send LeBron's Lakers home if they give it their best. The way that San Antonio will try to win basketball games hasn't radically changed either, as Murray will lead the charge and everyone else will pick up the slack left by White's departure. It remains to be seen who will make the most of the opportunity.
As for tanking, it seems the competitive spirit in the locker room has only intensified.
"Hell yeah we're playing for the playoffs," Murray said after a win over the Pelicans. "Nobody's here to lose, coaches, players, training staff, everybody wants to win. We lose it's quiet, people are down. We win, you feel the excitement in the room from everybody. We're playing for the playoffs, I think Spurs basketball is playing in the playoffs."
"We're not thinking about no lottery," Devin Vassell said. "We're thinking about next game winning, we're thinking about playoffs, we're thinking about being in it. We're not saying this season is a wash, for what? We're all competing, we all feel like we can make a push, and that's what we're gonna do."
Popovich said it was rational for fans to think about the draft, but gave a simple explanation for why nobody in the locker room is.
"You can't go to your team and ask them to lose," Popovich said, adding that you go out and teach and do what you do, and if you lose and get a good draft pick you accept it, but "it can't be because you didn't push them or teach them or demand from them."
There are long term goals and short term goals, and all of them involve the players fighting for wins while the front office acquires assets. San Antonio is just two games back of the Trail Blazers for tenth in the West, and the Blazers seem to be committed to the tank. If the Spurs can pass them and hold off the Pelicans and Kings, they'll be in the play-in.
Even if the wheels completely fell off for San Antonio, it would be nearly impossible for them to sink into the bottom five of the league. The Thunder, Rockets, Magic, Pistons, and Pacers are just too bad right now, and that's their perfectly valid journey through the 2022 NBA season.
It just doesn't seem like something that would happen here, barring a severe injury to a key player like the one that gave new head coach Gregg Popovich the consolation prize of a top pick who quickly delivered the team's first championship, and then four more.
These Spurs are providing an interesting alternative blueprint for the NBA's dreaded middle ground, when you're too good to bottom out but not good enough to be a contender. That doesn't mean you have to mortgage the future to maximize your best players in an attempt to compete right now. It also doesn't mean you have to send all those guys away in the hopes that the players to be named later perform several years down the line.
San Antonio has loaded up for the future without compromising the goals right in front of their developing group. It's a style of rebuilding that procures picks and protects pride. It can make a team and fanbase feel more hope than shame, and we may not have advanced metrics for that yet, but there's no denying that it has value in building Spurs culture for the next generation.
Dejounte Murray is uniquely equipped to lead this group into battle. Not too long ago, he was making his bones in Austin and getting chewed out by his Hall of Fame coach, who will break Don Nelson's record for all-time regular season wins in the next few weeks. Thanks in no small part to Murray seeking out hard coaching, he has grown into a dynamic force who defends and distributes at an elite level, an All-Star who still wants to improve in all areas.
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In recent days Murray has reflected on his achievements and goals, and repeated that this is just the beginning for him and for the team. They want to go to the playoffs, they want to win a title eventually. It's a long way to the top, and he knows that, but the foundation remains solid and a whole bunch of building materials just arrived.
Brian Wright's deadline moves left many in San Antonio with a mix of optimism for the future and sadness at saying goodbye, especially to Derrick White. If you take the feelings out of it completely and look at the balance sheet it's undeniably impressive, and that's a good indication that he did a tough job well.
"I think Brian's done a great job of thinking about where we are and where we want to be, and acting accordingly," Popovich said after the deadline.
The Spurs players still have a lot to fight for in the remaining 23 (+?) games, and Wright still has a ton of options for the offseason and beyond, and they're staying out of each other's way as well as possible. This path requires discipline and patience, but doesn't stifle the growth and competitiveness of a young team either. Everyone seems on board, and if it's successful, maybe we'll see more teams take a similarly balanced approach to rebuilding.
From top to bottom the organization is operating in a way that firmly says "let's get to work" before shutting up and getting to work, even if everyone knows that work won't result in a trophy right now. All that matters is keeping at it, and the Spurs will do just that.
