The Spurs had a rather boring offseason. They loaded up on size at the draft, they retained Harrison Barnes and Jordan McLaughlin, and their biggest addition was 34-year-old Tobias Harris. Victor Wembanyama got a no-brainer of a max contract, and that was it. A solid offseason for a young team coming off a Finals run, but not one filled with major decisions and big swings.
This will likely be the last summer when the front office will get the privilege of not having to make sacrifices, deal with potentially contentious negotiations, and have to make plays for the future. By next offseason, San Antonio might find itself dealing with the type of problems the Thunder and, to a lesser extent, the Knicks and Celtics dealt with this year.
For those who might not be aware, the tax and the second apron really complicated the team-building abilities of several contenders. The Thunder had to salary dump some of their proven deep bench guys in Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins, which wouldn’t have been that impactful on their contention odds. But they also had to drop Luguentz Dort to get under the tax at the behest of ownership, if Sam Presti’s press conference is to be believed. They picked up some second-rounders in the process, but lost one of their starters, a champion and one of their longest-tenured players on what their general manager called “a financial decision.”
In the Eastern Conference, the reigning champions and one of their biggest threats also had to make decisions that weren’t based on what made sense basketball-wise. The Knicks refused to cross the second apron, a decision seemingly spearheaded by their owner, and lost Mitchell Robinson in the process, replacing him with a lesser version of the same archetype, Andre Drummond. The Celtics traded Jaylen Brown for many reasons, according to reports, but his massive contract was apparently one of the biggest drivers for the move. Mind you, Robinson was essential for New York in several postseason runs, and Boston won a title with the Brown-Jason Tatum duo as their core.
Back to San Antonio. While Victor Wembanyama’s potential discount should help with cap balancing, tough decisions loom. First, Stephon Castle will become eligible for an extension next summer. Assuming he continues to improve as a player, he’ll want the max. The Spurs would surely love it if he took less and will have the threat of restricted free agency, which gives them control of Castle’s destiny, as a bargaining tool. The issue with wielding that weapon is that it could damage the relationship with Castle, who was a starter on a Finals team. If the front office thinks he’s a part of the untouchable core going forward, keeping him happy and feeling important will be paramount. Can they do that without offering the 25 percent max?
A Castle extension wouldn’t kick in until the 2028/29 season, so it wouldn’t have an immediate impact on the cap, but it would condition who the Spurs can and can’t afford in the future. San Antonio is so close to the tax line this offseason that a veteran’s minimum would push them over it. The main reason is De’Aaron Fox’s 30 percent max that will pay him $49.5 million this year. Eventually, Fox will get traded (more on that in a second), but there might be a more immediate casualty than Fox to balance the cap. Keldon Johnson is eligible for an extension but has not received one. Once Wembanyama’s extension kicks in next offseason, the Silver and Black will only have around $10 million to spend on three players if they want to stay under the tax. They could carve up some more space while waiving Luke Kornet, but bringing Johnson back could be hard to achieve.
Of course, all these estimates are made with Fox’s contract on the books at least until next season. The Spurs could be looking to move him now, but they made it clear that they won’t do that, which makes sense. Despite the struggles in the Finals and the postseason in general, Fox is one of the best players on the team, and certainly the best game manager. Moving him would likely represent taking a step back in terms of talent, since his current perceived value doesn’t come close to matching his massive salary. But eventually, he’ll have to go, unless the franchise prefers him over Castle and Dylan Harper, which seems extremely unlikely. So if not this season, when is Fox being salary dumped? There’s time until Castle’s extension kicks in to do so, but it might make more sense to do it next offseason, if there’s a buyer, to avoid having to deal from a position of extreme weakness.
We could continue looking towards the future and consider what a potential Harper extension would mean, but it’s too far down the line and too close to a possible CBA change. What’s clear right now is that the incredibly successful rebuild the Spurs have put together will very soon run into the limitations that the punitive repeater tax and the aprons put on team building, which has already forced other contenders to lose talent.
This offseason was a quiet one for San Antonio, leaving no need to veer from continuity and allowing the front office to keep the team that made the Finals together while adding some young, cheap pieces. It wasn’t the most exciting of summers, but soon enough, as the tough decisions become unavoidable and change the team, Spurs fans might find themselves looking back and hoping things could be as simple as they were in 2026.
