San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Even stealthy Spurs can’t quiet the trade whispers this time
Rumors, like other living things, need to be fed. Historically, few entities have starved them like the Spurs.
The Spurs don’t drop hints. They don’t leak. Their head coach and president of basketball operations was a trained Air Force intelligence officer during the Cold War, and back then secrets moved more freely through the Iron Curtain than they do decades later through the walls of his team’s front office.
Until the last second, the Spurs camouflaged all interest in both a French teenager and an irrepressible Argentinian, and over the years they cloaked almost every other significant transaction the same way.
Those whispers about trade proposals NBA fans love to read about every offseason?
It’s no accident precious few of them originate in San Antonio.
So imagine, then, how jarring it must be for agents, executives and national reporters well schooled in the practice of tracking the league’s bread crumbs to hear this month that the tightest-lipped franchise in the league might be talking. That the Spurs might be sending out feelers not only in one direction, but in many of them. That they’re up to something big.
Is this the biggest shock of the offseason?
Or is it something everyone should have seen coming all along?
First, a disclaimer: There is no inside information here about reports from reputable outlets that the Spurs have talked to the Warriors about LaMarcus Aldridge, or to the Lakers about DeMar DeRozan, or to the Sixers about Patty
Mills. And as usual, they are heading into this week’s NBA draft unwilling to tip their hand, while confirming only that they have options.
“It’s our responsibility,”
Spurs general manager Brian Wright said Saturday, “to go into the night with a feel for what all the possibilities are.”
That emphasis on preparation, Wright explained, is no different than in any other year. What he didn’t mention is there’s a reason why the Spurs haven’t been able to starve the rumor monster the way they usually do.
Simply put?
The Spurs usually do what’s sensible.
And this is the offseason when a shakeup makes sense.
It isn’t only because they just missed the playoffs for the first time in 23 years, but that’s part of it.
The past couple of seasons have served as a transition from one Spurs era to whatever is coming next, and while Aldridge and DeRozan have served as admirable placeholders, they’ve been placeholders nonetheless. If the Spurs ever hoist another Larry O’Brien trophy, neither of them will be in the team photo.
For at least a year now, it’s seemed possible — if not likely — that the Spurs would enter the 2020-21 season without one or both of their former All-Stars. DeRozan is an expensive wing player on a team loaded with young ones. Aldridge is a ballstopping post-up player on a team that unlocked some bubble magic by pushing the tempo.
If Wright, CEO R.C. Buford and coach Gregg Popovich hadn’t spent any time at all exploring the market for either of those two this offseason, it would have been organizational malpractice.
This isn’t an every-old-playermust-go situation, though. Wright realizes he doesn’t have to settle. If Golden State really did offer the No. 2 overall pick and Andrew Wiggins for the No. 11 selection and the last year of Aldridge’s contract? That seems like something the Spurs would have accepted before Warriors general manager Bob Myers completed his sentence.
But if Myers demanded the Spurs throw in one of their burgeoning young guards, or if a third team like the Kings or the Hawks needed to be involved? That makes things complicated.
Much of it hinges on which prospect the Spurs value in a draft that lacks much consensus among evaluators in terms of who should be selected first overall, or go in the top five, or the top 10. The Spurs have a history of identifying future stars other franchises underrate, with the draft-night trade for Kawhi Leonard being the most notorious example.
At the draft Wednesday, will they like one of the top prospects so much that they’ll feel the need to grab the Warriors’ No. 2 pick? Or, on the flip side, are they enamored of someone they think they can steal by trading down a few spots?
Neither would be a surprising, and that’s why the Spurs popping up in the rumor mill shouldn’t be, either. They have assets other teams like, and they have needs other teams can help fulfill.
That’s a recipe for a trade if there ever was one, and with so many potential partners involved, no amount of subterfuge can keep the Spurs’ maneuvering hidden.
The abbreviated nature of this offseason means any potential deal will have to come together quickly. And even if nothing develops before the draft?
Starved no more, the rumors will live a little longer.