After losing the 2026 NBA Finals, the San Antonio Spurs have been front and center in NBA trade rumors.
De’Aaron Fox, Luke Kornet, and Keldon Johnson all fell short in the Finals. Partly thanks to their contracts, but mostly due to their lackluster performances, all three have found themselves in the rumors.
Fox, in particular, is a fixture of mock trades.
For starters, he averaged only a dozen inefficient points in the Finals and is an easy scapegoat. On top of that, Dylan Harper already has (or is about to) usurp him as the best point guard in San Antonio. The Spurs can’t afford to pay his maximum salary for the next four years and offer Harper and Stephon Castle extensions of their own.
Usually, the Spurs would be able to get a decent return for an in-his-prime All-Star guard, but between the sour taste he left in the league’s mouth in June and his current contract, his value has never been lower. As a result, most mock trades have the Spurs attach prime draft picks to Fox, just to get him off the team.
After all, the Spurs have draft capital to spare, right? They have seven first-round picks or swaps to trade, after all.
However, any mock trade that has the Spurs give up multiple first-round picks misses the mark.
San Antonio Spurs Have to Hoard Draft Capital
The Spurs aren’t exactly following the Oklahoma City Thunder’s playbook, but it’s a close enough comparison.
The Thunder landed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a top scorer and perennial MVP candidate, and then drafted Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams to round out their core three. Through the draft, free agency, and savvy trades, the Thunder have been able to maintain a quality roster around their trio.
Oftentimes, though, players’ values are inflated simply by the fact that they play on a winning team. This season, to cut costs, OKC parted with Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins, and Isaiah Joe. Cost and a poor fit were why they swapped Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso in 2024.
Dort, Wiggins, and Joe aren’t exactly superstars, but they were key role players for the Thunder. So how does Sam Presti plan on replacing them? Through low-cost draft picks. In recent years, the Thunder landed Aday Mara, Thomas Sorber, Nikola Topic, and Dereck Lively in the lottery. Lively was then traded for Cason Wallace. The hope, then, is that all of those players will be able to impact winning while on their cheap rookie contracts.
You can only land cheap players that way if you hold onto your draft picks. Presti and the Thunder have been chastised for refusing to go all-in for another established star, but that simply wouldn’t be sustainable.
Instead, you build your core, keep them in town, and then use the draft to supplement. Bottom-feeders use the draft to find a superstar of their own, but winning franchises use the same method to find seventh, eighth, and ninth men.
If the Spurs attached a pick (or two) to get away from Fox’s salary, sure, they’d land a capable, win-now player in the deal, but once his contract is up, the Spurs will have their winning trio, sure, but less depth. Of course, the Thunder didn’t build solely through the draft. They traded for Caruso and Jared McCain, and poached Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency. But without the draft, they’d be limited.
The Spurs have plenty of picks, but their war chest pales in comparison to the Thunder’s. Brian Wright has to be extra stingy. Parting with a pick needs to bring back a very real return, not just entice someone else to take on a bad contract.
Remember, the Spurs are a project being built over ten or more years. 2027 is a priority, sure, but so are all of the years after that. San Antonio doesn’t need to go all-in on a big piece. The Spurs just need to keep a solid supporting cast around and let the stars go to work.
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