As the Spurs look to build around Wembanyama, here is a guide to their possible offseason plans
The next time Victor Wembanyama steps on a basketball court, it will be on his home turf.
Having completed an inaugural NBA season for the ages, one in which he remains a shoo-in for Rookie of the Year honors even as the Spurs stumbled to a 22-60 record, Wembanyama’s next stop is the Paris Olympics in July.
“It’s one of my dreams to play in the Olympics,” the 20-year-old Wembanyama said. “When I’m on the court, I’m going to give 200%. But I am going to be like a kid too, and just enjoy the moment.”
The brightest star playing for the host country, the 20-year-old Wembanyama is likely to serve as an avatar for the summer Games, at least as far as basketball is concerned.
After that, Wembanyama will return to the Spurs, where he hopes his NBA team will make a Wemby-sized leap forward in his second NBA season.
What comes next for the Wembanyama Spurs?
Here are five burning questions for the Spurs’ offseason that might lead to an answer:
1. How many of the 15 players on the Spurs’ regular roster will be back next season?
The answer to this question isn’t clear cut for a team that finished 19 games under .500 but also ended the season winning 7 of 11.
“There’s two ends of the spectrum,” general manager Brian Wright said.
On one end, he says: “Run it back because you saw progress and don’t change anything.”
On the other: “Hey, we only won X number, so we need to change everything.”
“The reality,” Wright said, “is your answer is somewhere in between.”
That’s a long way of saying changes are in the offing this offseason, but probably not of the wholesale variety.
The Spurs have only one player set to become an unrestricted free agent — reserve forward Cedi Osman. Two others — backup big men Dominick Barlow and Sandro Mamukelashvili — will be restricted free agents, meaning the team retains the right to match outside offers for them.
Three players — Devonte’ Graham, Julian Champagnie and Charles Bassey — have contracts for next season that are non- or partially guaranteed, making them expendable should the team need to clear roster or salary cap space.
Barring a trade of some sort, the rest of the Spurs’ core players — prominently Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson and Jeremy Sochan — can be expected to return in 2024-25.
2. Speaking of trades, do the Spurs have a blockbuster on tap?
With Wembanyama having already shown himself to be one of the NBA’s top players, the race is on to get him high-level help.
The most likely way to make that happen is via trade. Given the Spurs’ salary cap situation and wealth of upcoming draft picks, they have the means to pull off a swap for a star almost whenever they want to.
The trick is waiting on the right star.
Much of the talk so far seems to be centered on Trae Young, who would be one of the first All-Stars out of Atlanta should the Hawks decide to blow up their roster.
The 25-year-old Young, who has averaged at least 25 points for five consecutive seasons, would certainly give the Spurs an elite scorer to pair with Wembanyama. The cost of acquiring Young might prove too steep, especially considering the Spurs would need to re-sign him to a maximum contract in 2026 to make the deal worth anyone’s while.
The Spurs would then be locked into the Wembanyama-Young pairing for years, without the wherewithal to add to it.
3. Might the draft provide immediate relief?
The good news is the Spurs could own as many as two top 10 picks in the June draft. The bad news is this is shaping up to be one of the most “meh” draft pools in recent memory.
The Spurs have the fifth-best odds of landing the No. 1 pick in the May 12 draft lottery — 10.5%. That is slightly worse than the 14% odds they cashed in last summer to land Wembanyama.
The team has a 44.3% chance of hitting a top-5 pick, and can come in no worse than No. 9.
The Spurs also could have a pick on the way from Toronto stemming from the Jakob Poeltl trade in February 2023. The Raptors owe that pick if it falls outside the top 6 — a scenario that stands a 54.6% shot of happening.
Once the Spurs’ draft positioning is settled, they will be culling from a collection of prospects that does not feature a Wembanyama — and probably doesn’t even feature a Brandon Miller.
French 7-footer Alexandre Saar, the Kentucky guard duo of Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard, the Connecticut pair of guard Stephon Castle and center Donovan Clingan, Tennessee sharpshooter Dalton Knecht and Serbian point guard Nikola Topic are all players who should be on the Spurs’ radar near the top of the draft.
4. Will Tre Jones still be the starting point guard heading into training camp?
By all objective measures, Jones was the best point guard on the roster this season. The Spurs were 5-28 with him coming off the bench, and 16-32 with him as a starter with better offensive and defensive ratings to boot.
Though the Spurs value Jones as a floor general and competitor, it is clear the powers that be would prefer their long-term starting point guard to come with more size than the 6-foot-1 Jones. That is part of the reason for the ill-fated move of Sochan there to start the season.
Expect the Spurs to evaluate a relatively thin point guard market in free agency, with veterans Mike Conley and Kyle Lowry, mid-tier options like Monte Morris and Markelle Fultz and — perhaps most intriguing of all — Jones’ older brother, Tyus, highlighting the list of players available.
The Spurs could otherwise look to fill that need through the draft, where Dillingham, Castle and Topic will be among the top options.
5. How fast can Wemby’s backups get well?
The Spurs enter the offseason thin in the frontcourt due to injury. Zach Collins suffered a torn labrum in his right shoulder in the season finale against Detroit an injury that requires surgery to repair.
The team expects the 26-year-old Collins to be ready for the start of next season, but any setback along the way could place that timetable in jeopardy.
Bassey, meanwhile, ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in December, an injury that can take up to a full year to properly heal.
If Bassey isn’t well enough to compete for a roster spot in fall camp, the Spurs could cut bait with him completely.
Either way, it wouldn’t be surprising for the Spurs to seek frontcourt depth behind Wembanyama when the free agent market opens in July.
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