NBA 2024 Offseason Check-In: San Antonio Spurs

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2024 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the San Antonio Spurs.

Free agent signings

• Chris Paul: One year, $10,460,000. Includes an additional $1,568,999 in unlikely incentives. Signed using cap room.
• Charles Bassey: One year, minimum salary. Re-signed using minimum salary exception. Waived right to veto trade.
• Sandro Mamukelashvili: One year, minimum salary. Re-signed using minimum salary exception. Waived right to veto trade.
• Brandon Boston Jr.: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
• Malachi Flynn: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
• Nathan Mensah: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
• Riley Minix: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
• Jameer Nelson Jr.: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Note: Nelson was subsequently waived.

Trades

• Acquired the Timberwolves’ 2031 first-round pick and the right to swap 2030 first-round picks with the Timberwolves (top-one protected) in exchange for the draft rights to Rob Dillingham (No. 8 pick).
• Acquired the draft rights to Juan Nunez (No. 36 pick) and cash in exchange for the draft rights to Johnny Furphy (No. 35 pick).
• Acquired cash from the Hornets in exchange for Devonte’ Graham and the Pelicans’ 2025 second-round pick.
• Acquired Harrison Barnes and the right to swap 2031 first-round picks with the Kings in a three-team trade in exchange for RaiQuan Gray (two-way; to Bulls).

Draft picks

• 1-4: Stephon Castle
  • Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $41,351,699).
• 2-36: Juan Nunez
  • Signed with Barcelona in Spain.
• 2-48: Harrison Ingram
  • Signed to two-way contract.

Two-way signings

• David Duke
• Harrison Ingram

Departed/unsigned free agents

• Dominick Barlow (Hawks)
• Cedi Osman (Panathinaikos)

Other moves

• Waived Jamaree Bouyea (two-way).

Salary cap situation

• Went below the cap to use room.
• Now operating over the cap ($140.6MM) and below the luxury tax line ($170.8MM).
• Carrying approximately $145MM in salary.
• No hard cap.
• Full room exception ($8MM) available.

The offseason so far

After earning All-NBA votes and finishing as the runner-up for the Defensive Player of the Year award as a 20-year-old rookie, Victor Wembanyama is on a trajectory to become one of the league’s very best players sooner rather than later. However, the Spurs made it clear with their offseason moves that they won’t rush the process of building a contending team around him.

Rather than going all-in on win-now pieces or taking an extreme long-term view by surrounding Wembanyama with several more young prospects, San Antonio split the difference. The team entered June’s draft armed with a pair of picks in the top eight, but only kept the first of the two, using it to select guard Stephon Castle fourth overall and then sending the No. 8 pick to Minnesota in exchange for two far-off draft assets — an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a top-one protected pick swap in 2030.

It’s a risky move, given the wide range of outcomes for those two assets. It’s entirely possible that the ’31 pick ends up in the 20s and the ’30 swap doesn’t get used at all.

But the logic behind the move makes sense. The 2024 draft class wasn’t particularly loaded, so that No. 8 pick was unlikely to produce a star; the Wolves – given their cap situation – are a team whose long-term sustainability is worth betting against; and the Spurs don’t necessarily need to bet on those picks to land in the top halves of the 2030 and 2031 drafts, since they could use them as trade chips well before that in order to add players who will complement Wembanyama as he enters his prime.

Adding two rookies to a young roster also might not have the been the best approach for optimizing Wembanyama’s development, which was certainly a consideration for the Spurs this offseason. That’s a key reason why the team used essentially all of its available cap room to bring in a pair of veterans: Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes.

Paul, who was waived by the Warriors so they could avoid guaranteeing his $30MM salary for 2024/25, ended up signing with San Antonio for about a third of that amount. The future Hall of Famer could have chosen to join one of any number of teams closer to title contention, but the opportunity to play for head coach Gregg Popovich and alongside a young phenom like Wembanyama made the Spurs an appealing option.

Wembanyama spent much of his rookie year playing next to “point guards” like Jeremy Sochan and Malaki Branham before veteran Tre Jones was eventually reinserted into the starting lineup. Sochan and Branham are promising young players, but they’re not point guards, as last year’s experimentation confirmed. Wembanyama was most effective offensively with Jones on the court, and should benefit tremendously from having either Jones or Paul running the offense in his second year.

Barnes won’t necessarily have the same sort of direct impact on Wembanyama’s on-court production, but the forward is a solid defender who should help make the big man’s life a little easier on that end of the floor. Wembanyama should also reap the benefits of Barnes’ and Paul’s knowledge and experience — the two veterans have a combined 31 NBA seasons and three Olympic gold medals under their belts, and Barnes has won a championship.

Outside of bringing back reserve free agent centers Charles Bassey and Sandro Mamukelashvili, the Spurs didn’t make any other moves of note this summer, but they’re well stocked with future draft picks that will put them in position to continue adding talent to this core, either by drafting players or using those picks as trade pieces.

Up next

With 15 players on standard guaranteed contracts and no players eligible for contract extensions, the Spurs are unlikely to have a particularly active October.

They’re only carrying a pair of players on two-way deals right now, so they have a decision to make on who will fill the third slot. Brandon Boston, Nathan Mensah, and Riley Minix are on the roster on Exhibit 10 contracts and could be candidates to have those deals converted to two-ways. Boston is probably the best candidate of the bunch if San Antonio wants a player capable of competing for minutes — he has appeared in 105 regular season games over the past three seasons for the Clippers.

The Spurs could also look outside the organization to fill that slot, either with a current free agent or with a player on another team’s roster who gets waived before the season begins.

It’s also worth noting that the Spurs are one of the few teams with a ton of flexibility below the luxury tax line, so they’re a good candidate to help accommodate a trade between two cap-strapped clubs, like the Hornets are doing in the Karl-Anthony Towns blockbuster.