{"id":546433,"date":"2026-01-19T09:26:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T09:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/546433\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T09:26:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T09:26:56","slug":"spurs-notes-olynyk-trade-deadline-wembanyama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/546433\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurs Notes: Olynyk, Trade Deadline, Wembanyama"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kelly Olynyk<\/a> has acquired a lot of knowledge during his 13 NBA seasons, and he\u2019s happy to share it with his young Spurs teammates, Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe<\/a>\u00a0writes in a subscriber-only story. At age 34, Olynyk has mostly been a mentor since being traded to San Antonio last summer, averaging just 9.7 minutes of action in 26 games. But he\u2019s not complaining about his new responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour role changes but it\u2019s something I enjoy, helping others,\u201d he said. \u201cI had a lot of guys help me along the way. The ins and outs of the league and how to be a professional, just what you\u2019re trying to pass on to these kids and it\u2019s awesome to be part of. You want to see them succeed. You want to be a part of a team and something great, and that\u2019s where this team is going. To be able to have your voice heard is special.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spurs are Olynyk\u2019s eighth team, and they may provide his best chance to win a title as their young core develops around Victor Wembanyama<\/a>. Olynyk, who is in the last year of his current contract, hopes to remain with the franchise for several more years, saying he still has a passion for the game, even when playing pickup in the gym.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m blessed that I haven\u2019t had any major injuries or setbacks,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to stay in this league for 10 years and then you get to 12, 13, and I\u2019m super blessed to be able to do that. You just don\u2019t know, but for me it\u2019s awesome and it\u2019s something where I wake up every day and love going to work. If that ever fades then you stop playing, but if it doesn\u2019t then you ride it until you can\u2019t no more.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more from San Antonio:<\/p>\n

The Spurs are only 5-6 since Christmas Day, but they\u2019re still ahead of schedule in their development and don\u2019t need to make a major trade this season, contends Mike Finger of The San Antonio Express-News<\/a> (subscription required). He suggests a smaller deal such as possibly moving Olynyk or Jeremy Sochan<\/a> to add another shooter or role player and states that Knicks big man Guerschon Yabusele<\/a> might be worth considering because of his experience playing alongside Wembanyama on the French national team.
\nWembanyama limped to the locker room early in Thursday\u2019s game after bumping knees with Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>, per Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News<\/a>. Wembanyama was able to return, but McDonald notes that he has come up limping four times in the past seven games. Wembanyama understands that the injury risk is part of being a star in a physical league. \u201cWe have a target on the other team\u2019s best players as well,\u201d he said. \u201cNever in a dirty way, but that\u2019s just what we all have to go through.\u201d
\nAntetokounmpo, who had a build similar to Wembanyama\u2019s when he entered the league, believes \u201cthe sky\u2019s the limit\u201d for the French star \u201cas long as he can stay healthy,\u201d relay Jared Weiss and Eric Nehm of The Athletic<\/a>. Sources tell the authors that the Spurs want Wembanyama to become more aware of injury prevention during games and to fall on the floor less often.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kelly Olynyk has acquired a lot of knowledge during his 13 NBA seasons, and he\u2019s happy to share…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,204,2724,2289,6,969,474,4075,4074,534,693],"class_list":{"0":"post-546433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio-spurs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-guerschon-yabusele","10":"tag-jeremy-sochan","11":"tag-kelly-olynyk","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-san-antonio","14":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","15":"tag-sanantonio","16":"tag-sanantoniospurs","17":"tag-spurs","18":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115921056134018446","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546433","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=546433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}