The Spurs hope to wrap up a fifth NBA Championship tomorrow night in San Antonio. It will be interesting to see how a dominant Finals might sway the plans of Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich for next season. The thought of going out on top could be appealing, but maybe not as much as chasing a sixth ring. Here’s a rundown of the Southwest Division:
- Duncan’s player option for the 2014/15 season has been increased from $10,000,000 to $10,361,446 in order to meet the CBA’s requirement that a player option not pay less in salary than the year preceding it, multiple sources tell Mark Deeks of ShamSports.
- Zach Randolph also owns a contract that was approved despite violating the same restriction, but Deeks writes that no change has been made to Randolph’s deal at this point. As we mentioned in our Free Agent Stock Watch piece on Randolph, his steeper decrease in salary (from $18.2MM to $16.9MM) for next year’s player option could be a significant factor in his decision-making process heading into the offseason.
- Deeks speculates that the league may have opted not to adjust Randolph’s deal because it was signed under the 2005 CBA which is no longer active, whereas Duncan’s deal was signed under the current CBA.
- Adi Joseph of USA Today covers the draft needs of the Grizzlies, Spurs, and Rockets.