Ever since June 30, 2022, the San Antonio Spurs have gone through a number of phases which have led to this past Monday where their All-Star calibre guard De’Aaron Fox signed a four-year maximum contract extension. A statement from the organisation to signal that they are finally ready to transition back into winning ways.

Before we look towards the future, lets take a quick look back at how the Spurs have got to where they are now:

Phase One: The Teardown. The trade of Dejounte Murray to the Atlanta Hawks set the Spurs down a path they hadn’t gone in over 25 years. After a couple of years of teetering around the playoff picture, San Antonio finally bit the bullet to begin the 2022 offseason, trading away their newly named All-Star for a package that centered around a number of first-round draft picks. That season the front office would go on to trade a number of veteran players up until the trade deadline in February of 2023. Players including Jakob Poeltl, Josh Richardson and Derrick White (who was traded a couple months prior to Murray). Over that year and a half, the Silver & Black accumulated a bunch of draft capital, intriguing assets and more importantly high lottery odds that allowed them to move into phase two in the summer of ‘23.

Phase Two: The Rebuild. San Antonio got lucky. Really lucky. In just their first year of organically tanking they won the 2023 NBA draft lottery and the rights to draft “one of the greatest prospects in team sports history”, the French phenom, Victor Wembanyama. Phase two is sometimes the hardest for NBA organisations to get out from, you can go years and years without the ping-pong balls going your way and a franchise player falling into your lap. For San Antonio though, they knew instantly they weren’t going to be rebuilding for long. For those they didn’t believe, Victor’s rookie season certainly changed their tune. He was unanimous ROTY, runner-up in DPOY and had one of the best rookie seasons in NBA history. After just seventy-one games of the French teenager there was already a ton of noise surrounding the organisation from the outside that they had to go “all-in”. Instead, the Spurs played it slow last offseason, not wanting to skip any steps and continuing to develop Wembanyama and their other young players on their own timetable. They brought in a couple of vets to help manage the ship but maintained that the young core would have the keys. After a strong start to the season and a couple of weeks prior to the 2025 NBA trade deadline, the fifth pick in the 2017 draft and star guard De’Aaron Fox became available and only had one team on his wishlist: The Spurs. With a player of Fox’s talent available and pushing to come play with Vic, the Silver & Black used their leverage to all-but-swipe Fox away from Sacramento. This was the start of their transition into phase three. Unfortunately both Wemby and Fox couldn’t finish the season due to health issues but that gave the Spurs one last dip into the lottery pool. Then on August 4, 2025 the day after De’Aaron Fox became eligible to sign an extension, he did, and officially pushed San Antonio into the next phase in their quest back to the top.

Phase Three: The Playoffs. This offseason for the Spurs was clearly about getting themselves in the best possible position to be able to play some post-season basketball for the first time in seven years. They accomplished that goal without giving up long-term assets and still continuing to give their young players the chance to lead this team into the future.

Mitch Johnson, Brian Wright and the rest of the coaching and front office staff still have lots of work to do before they arrive at Phase Four: The Contenders. But here is what they got up to these past few months:

Dylan Harper #2Carter Bryant #14Luke Kornet — 4 years, $41 millionJordan McLaughlin — 1 year, $2.3 million (Re-sign)Lindy Waters III — 1 year, $2.3 millionDavid Jones-Garcia — Two-WayRiley Minix – Two-Way (Re-sign)Harrison Ingram – Two-Way (Re-sign)

Guards: De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Jordan McLaughlin, David Jones-Garcia (Two-Way)

Wings: Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Julian Champagnie, Carter Bryant, Lindy Waters III, Riley Minix (Two-Way)

Forwards: Harrison Barnes, Jeremy Sochan, Harrison Ingram (Two-Way)

Bigs: Victor Wembanyama, Luke Kornet, Kelly Olynyk

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In the draft they added the best players available at both pick #2 (Dylan Harper) and pick #14 (Carter Bryant). Two players who have sky-high ceilings but also have a skillset that will make them impactful NBA players from day dot.

In free agency, they plugged holes from last season, with Luke Kornet coming in to provide rim protection and size for when Wemby sits as well as getting a versatile savvy big in Kelly Olynyk by trade.

Then to top it off, the Spurs rewarded their All-Summer League first team performer and combo-guard David Jones-Garcia with a two-way contract.

As we enter into the quiet period of the NBA calendar, where free agency is currently being halted by a quartet of high-profile restricted free agents and training camp is yet to begin, the Silver & Black’s roster for the 2025-26 season is close to completion, with just one standard roster spot up for grabs.

In terms of their cap sheet, San Antonio sit $7.9M under the luxury tax line, allowing them to still have some breathing room throughout the rest of the season. They still have access to the full Bi-Annual Exception that is worth $5.1M and can use this to acquire a player(s) via free agency or trades throughout the year.

Starting 5 in Game 1 (if everyone is available):

De’Aaron FoxStephon CastleDevin VassellHarrison BarnesVictor Wembanyama

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Offseason Grade: A. Trying to hang more banners.