The Spurs and Tiago Splitter have "ramped up" their negotiations on a new deal, and are making progress toward an agreement, reports ESPN.com's Marc Stein (via Twitter). Stein adds in a second tweet that other teams pursuing Splitter appear to be dropping off in anticipation of the 28-year-old coming to terms with San Antonio.
Splitter, who received a qualifying offer from the Spurs worth $4.93MM, figures to be in for a sizable raise on last year's $3.94MM salary. While it's not clear exactly what sort of offers the big man could be looking at, a multiyear deal with an annual salary between $6-10MM seems likely. Even if the Spurs and Splitter don't reach an agreement, he's a restricted free agent, which means the club would have the opportunity to match any rival offer sheet.
If the Spurs were to agree to terms with Splitter, it may signal that the team doesn't expect to use room under the cap this summer. With close to $42MM in salary commitments already, a new deal for Splitter and a new contract for Manu Ginobili would use up a good chunk of San Antonio's potential space, even assuming Ginobili takes a significant pay cut.
This post was first published on July 2nd at 2:32pm CST.