{"id":594086,"date":"2026-02-10T07:03:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T07:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/594086\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T07:03:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T07:03:36","slug":"a-final-look-at-the-spurs-uneventful-trade-deadline-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/594086\/","title":{"rendered":"A final look at the Spurs\u2019 uneventful trade deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Spurs didn\u2019t do anything at the deadline. Was that the right choice?<\/p>\n

Marilyn Dubinski: I think so, especially if there wasn\u2019t a good offer to be had. From a personal standpoint, I love everyone on this roster and wasn\u2019t anxious for anyone to be moved. If anything, I was sad but understood why Jeremy Sochan\u2019s group asked for permission to explore the market. Ultimately, it sounds like teams wanted more for him than the Spurs were willing to give or take on (either a first round pick, or, in Guerschon Yabusele\u2019s case, an extra year), so they were smart to wait. I see this as a \u201clearn what they have before making a big move\u201d season, and that\u2019s exactly what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

Mark Barrington: Obviously, I don\u2019t have access to the same information as the Spurs front office, but from my viewpoint, it seems like they probably took the safest route, and probably the right one. The team definitely needs a power forward who can bang in the paint and who can also provide a perimeter scoring threat to unclog the paint for the Spurs\u2019 collection of guards and small wings. But guys who match that template aren\u2019t easy or cheap to get. I was hoping for a John Collins deal, but apparently the Clippers were too distracted by internal drama to make that happen, or the cost to pry him loose would have been too much for the Spurs to pay. I still think the Spurs are a year or two away from being true contenders, so making a big win-now move is not necessarily the smart thing to do. If they can pick up that player in the draft or in the offseason, then the patience will pay off. I want it now, but I think Brian Wright can afford to be a bit more patient.<\/p>\n

Jeje Gomez: Now that we\u2019ve had time to see what was out there, it seems it was the right call. It doesn\u2019t feel like they missed out on a deal that would have made them better without costing them too much. The closest to it might be sending out some cash for Jock Landale to bolster the center depth, but at that point, we are just talking about the fringes of the roster. Not moving Sochan after the reports of his availability were made public was a little surprising, but interested teams were probably fine just waiting until the summer instead of giving up assets, and attaching a pick to move someone when there\u2019s no need, cap-wise, wouldn\u2019t have made sense. It would have been nice to upgrade, but it will have to wait until the offseason.<\/p>\n

J.R. Wilco: First, I\u2019m going to take issue with the \u201cright choice\u201d wording, which assumes that PATFO<\/a> decided not to make a move when it is not at all clear that was the case. There were some rumors, and there\u2019s also a strong history of dealing guys who\u2019ve made it known they\u2019d like to be elsewhere \u2014 and I\u2019m not merely talking about The Nephew. So since Sochan made it known that he\u2019d prefer a change of scenery, I assume the team tried to deal him. If they couldn\u2019t find any takers, or a taker who\u2019d offer what they think Jeremy\u2019s market value was, then I don\u2019t expect them to bend over backwards to make it happen for him. Second, I mean, what did the fanbase expect? The team is asset rich, but they\u2019re not getting spendthrifty with it. They could use a starting power forward with size and shooting ability and they could use some depth at center. Outside of that, the roster is pretty well set. This is the same team that ignored all of the talk about dealing for Trae Young and every other star that the league\u2019s cognoscenti tried to push down their throats as soon as it was obvious that Wemby had the goods. I find it difficult to a) laud the team for avoiding a rash move while staying the course to grab Castle, Harper and Bryant, and then b) dump on them because they didn\u2019t make a deal at the trade deadline that I don\u2019t even know was on the table. What I\u2019m saying is that standing pat was the right move.<\/p>\n

The Spurs have a full roster, but could create a spot easily. Is there anyone in the buyout market or who could be waived soon that would make them better?<\/p>\n

Dubinski: If they truly feel they need to add depth pieces, it would be at the forward or center spots. They could have a reunion with Kyle Anderson, who is a bit more of a reliable shooter than Sochan, but with Sochan still here, I\u2019d play him over Slo Mo, so there\u2019s really no need beyond a good story. At center, there aren\u2019t too many options out there who would be an upgrade over Kelly Olynyk, but a couple would be Mason Plumlee or potentially Dario Saric, who is not waived yet but expected to be. Still, no one that screams the Spurs need to make a move for them.<\/p>\n

Barrington: Boris Diaw joined the Spurs two days after he was bought out of his contract and waived by the Bobcats in March 2012, and became a key role player in the 2013 and 2014 title runs. There are players out there that can make a difference, but I don\u2019t see a Boris in this year\u2019s crop. There are mostly older players who don\u2019t fit the Spurs timeline. I maybe would think about taking a flyer on Chris Boucher, who has length and athleticism but isn\u2019t much of a scorer, and maybe he\u2019s an upgrade over Bismack \u2026 well, I\u2019m talking myself out of it. I look forward to seeing what Brian Wright is going to do.<\/p>\n

Gomez: The problem with the buyout market for the Spurs is that they don\u2019t have minutes to offer. Replacing Biyombo with, say, Plumlee as the fourth or at best third big man spot would be an upgrade, but it is probably not intriguing for Plumlee, and it might not be worth the trouble for San Antonio, since Biyombo seems to be respected in the locker room. The only type of move that would make sense would be one that brings in someone the front office thinks could contribute beyond this season. I\u2019ve always liked Haywood Highsmith, but he has missed the entire year with injury. A Malaki Branham reunion would probably be too messy. There just aren\u2019t a lot of intriguing candidates worth potentially disrupting the locker room chemistry.<\/p>\n

Wilco: If Olynyk can\u2019t get playing time in San Antonio (and remember how he was contributing good minutes to the team during the early season), then how can anyone on the buyout market? This is how good the team is now, which kind of puts us back to the Draft and Stash days, when it wasn\u2019t odd for multiple years\u2019 worth of picks to be in Europe to improve because the team didn\u2019t have the minutes for them. Corollary: think about how quickly Dylan and Carter have developed in their rookie years, and realize that the team already sees them as better options than Jeremy and Kelly.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Sochan is still around despite having been given permission to seek a new home. What should the Spurs do with him?<\/p>\n

Dubinski: I\u2019m repeating myself, but my ideal world would be the Spurs figure things out with him, he\u2019s a rotational player again, re-signs on the cheap, and all is happy in the world. Alas, that probably won\u2019t happen, especially with Carter Bryant starting to come into his own, so it then comes down to if they think they can get a sign-and-trade deal done for Sochan this summer. If so, they probably need to start showcasing him again (health permitting) to up his value, or if the goal is to give him his qualifying offer let the market determine his value, keep it low. Or they could just let him walk this summer. I don\u2019t know, all I do know is I\u2019m sad about the entire thing.<\/p>\n

Barrington: In a perfect world, Jeremy Sochan would find his offense and shooting touch and become a rotation player for the Spurs. But he just hasn\u2019t looked that great in the limited playing minutes he\u2019s had so far this season and maybe it\u2019s time for a change of scenery to reinvigorate his career. I just want to see the guy succeed, and if it\u2019s somewhere else than in San Antonio, I\u2019m OK with that, except in games he plays against the Spurs.<\/p>\n

But for this season, I expect him to remain with the team and serve as injury insurance, and to provide depth. He\u2019s not a great fit in the current roster, but I would support the coaching staff trying to put him into roles where he can succeed. The best-case scenario is that he\u2019ll have a basketball renaissance and it will be springtime for Sochan and Poland, and everybody wins.<\/p>\n

Gomez: The answer is probably \u201cnothing,\u201d which is a little sad. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a way for Sochan to find his way back into the rotation unless there\u2019s a major injury that forces Mitch Johnson\u2019s hand. Waiving him is probably the best for Sochan, as he would be able to try to find minutes elsewhere, but no one can blame the Spurs for wanting to have him around just in case an injury does happen. He might just have to stick around until the summer, when he\u2019ll likely leave unceremoniously in free agency.<\/p>\n

Wilco: Ahh, Jeremy. It wasn\u2019t even three years ago that he was in New York doing interviews at the draft as the Spurs picked Victor first. There was so much to look forward to, but the shot never came around and the league has gotten to the point where point guards who can\u2019t defend and power forwards who can\u2019t shoot have turned into dinosaurs because they\u2019re quite simply unplayable. I hope #10 can find his shot someday, and soon, but until then there\u2019s not really much of a place for him on the Spurs and they\u2019ll either waive him or let him go at the end of his contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Spurs didn\u2019t do anything at the deadline. Was that the right choice? Marilyn Dubinski: I think so,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3797],"tags":[7,5621,6,969,474,4075,4074,534,37729],"class_list":{"0":"post-594086","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-in-the-bonus","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-san-antonio","12":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","13":"tag-sanantonio","14":"tag-sanantoniospurs","15":"tag-spurs","16":"tag-spurs-analysis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116045063876050950","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594086","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=594086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}