Reevaluating the Spurs Roster After the Victor Wembanyama Bomb

2 comments

1. The Spurs will 100% sign Vassell to an extension this offseason unless he and his reps are determined to bet on him this season. The injury “concerns” are a bunch of nonsense imo, the Spurs were clearly not rushing Vassell back last year and he’s had no notable concerns with durability prior to last season either.

   As for Keldon, I think something that the avid “we should trade Keldon” camp is missing revolves around his defense. We all talk about how Wembanyama will allow Keldon to play more of the role that allowed him to be so efficient his second and third years, but having a true defensive anchor also opens up players’ defensive games.

   A great example to point to is Kawhi: in the years where his prime overlapped with Duncan on our roster, Kawhi was afforded the opportunity to play extremely aggressively on defense because he had a top-5 all-time defensive anchor behind him and knew he could funnel players towards Duncan if need be. After Duncan (in part due to his increased offensive duties but also, imo, due to a lack of an all-world rim protector behind him) Kawhi’s defense dipped from “possible perimeter GOAT” to “perimeter menace.”

   I’m not suggesting that Wembanyama’s presence will boost Keldon to all-defensive levels, but I do think it will unlock the ability for him to play more freely and aggressively on defense due to his mistakes being covered up more, and in turn will allow Keldon to look even better on defense than he maybe would in a vacuum.

2. I’d like to think there’s a middle ground between signing Dev to a discount deal and letting him hit free agency

   I think w the new CBA we can do 5 year deals on extensions. What about something like 5 years for $125? Might seem like a lot, but Devs still got one year on his rookie deal, so we’re talking about a contract from 24/25 to 28/29. Max contracts could be like $75 mil at that point, $25 a year could be average starter money for a damn good player. Spurs would know his knee better than we would, if they feel good about where he is I hope they push to lock him up for as many years as he’ll agree to.