{"id":147876,"date":"2025-07-05T00:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-05T00:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/147876\/"},"modified":"2025-07-05T00:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-05T00:25:14","slug":"spurs-send-message-to-victor-wembanyamas-former-teammate-after-career-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/147876\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurs Send Message to Victor Wembanyama’s Former Teammate After Career Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spurs Send Message to Victor Wembanyama’s Former Teammate After Career Decision<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Sandro Mamukelashvili agreed to a two-year, $5.5 million deal<\/a> with the Toronto Raptors, including a player option for the second year.<\/p>\n

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Mamukelashvili served as the San Antonio Spurs’ backup to Victor Wembanyama last season, averaging 6.3 points and 3.1 rebounds on 50.2% shooting in 11.2 minutes per game.<\/p>\n

With Mamukelashvili\u2019s departure, the Spurs lost not only a dependable bench piece but also a young, versatile talent who complemented Wembanyama\u2019s transcendent skill set.<\/p>\n

Three days later, on Friday, the Spurs organization took to X to offer a fond farewell, posting with the message, “Once a Spur, always a Spur \ud83d\udda4\ud83e\udd0d Thank you, @Mamukelashvili5! Wishing you all the best in Toronto!”<\/p>\n

Signed off waivers on March 3, 2023, Mamukelashvili earned a standard NBA contract and quickly became a reliable rotational piece under Gregg Popovich, playing in a career-high 61 games this past season.<\/p>\n

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On March 19, he erupted for a career\u2011best 34 points and nine rebounds in just 19 minutes off the bench against the New York Knicks, setting an NBA record for most points scored in under 20 minutes of play.<\/p>\n

That performance underscored “Mamu\u2019s” scoring versatility, highlighted by a 37.3% 3\u2011point clip on 8.5 attempts per 36 minutes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"San<\/p>\n

San Antonio Spurs forward Sandro Mamukelashvili (54) drives to the net against Toronto Raptors guard Scottie Barnes (4).\u00a9 John E&period; Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s frontcourt depth was an explicit need this offseason, and Mamukelashvili\u2019s perimeter shooting, passing touch and proven Spurs pedigree made him an attractive fit.<\/p>\n

This farewell marks the end of a budding partnership in San Antonio and the start of a new chapter in Toronto, all while Wembanyama and the Spurs chart a course toward the future.<\/p>\n

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Related: Dennis Schroder Sends 3-Word Message After Joining Sacramento Kings<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Rockets Release NBA Veteran Days After Kevin Durant Trade<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jul 4, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spurs Send Message to Victor Wembanyama’s Former Teammate After Career Decision originally appeared on Athlon Sports. On Tuesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,3349,6,191,681,969,474,7990,1261,2594,680,476,3820,693],"class_list":{"0":"post-147876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-gregg-popovich","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york-knicks","12":"tag-raptors","13":"tag-san-antonio","14":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","15":"tag-sandro-mamukelashvili","16":"tag-scottie-barnes","17":"tag-the-spurs","18":"tag-toronto","19":"tag-toronto-raptors","20":"tag-torontoraptors","21":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114797787648591798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}