THE 2019-2020 TO 2020-2021 KEEP, TRADE, LET WALK SPURS THREAD

[YogurtProducer]

Odds Poeltl is back next year? I loved him in TO

[G R E Y]

Odds Poeltl is back next year? I loved him in TO

Jakob made some overtures in Austrian media that he would explore the market, but these were pre-Covid and so pre-strapped-for-cash league. Plus with wanting and getting more minutes in the bubble, his O game didn't really make a jump, even as his D was ever steady and reliable. That and his FTs were at a career low this season - below 50%. I will never fathom how that's possible for a NBA pro, but that's another discussion. He has since walked back those earlier comments a bit and said realistically he expects to return to the Spurs.

According to Pounding the Rock, this is his QO range:

This means he is now a restricted free agent if he signs the offer, and as a former 9th overall pick who failed to meet “starter status” (either started half of the games or played 2,000 minutes the prior season), his base offer should be around $4.6 million.

https://www.poundingtherock.com/2020/11/18/21573866/report-the-spurs-have-extended-qualifying-offers-to-poeltl-weatherspoon-and-eubanks

Another article states we offered a QO of $5M, so we'll see what happens there. He's very important for us defensively and can contribute some on O, though we've yet to see the bigger array of moves he showed in college. We do need him and I think we'd like to retain him. On the business side of things, that he didn't play his way to a surefire offer in the bubble works to our favour. He may be more important to us than to other teams, so hopefully we retain him for a team-friendly cost. Pre-bubble there was word of around $12M/4, so hopefully something south of that eventually.

[G R E Y]

And here we go:

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[G R E Y]

Solid. He played his way into this contract, forcing us to give him minutes, fully taking advantage of the opportunity. Probably our most consistent big in the bubble. Great team mate and locker room guy, too. Welcome back, Drew!

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[G R E Y]

Great, team-friendly deal:

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EDIT to add:

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[G R E Y]

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[imagump1313]

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Pulling for Lyles. He earned it.

I hope its not an either or decision because I would rather have Lyles

[G R E Y]

YES! He was projected in the $12M range pre-Covid, so this is excellent, both annual and length:

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Welcome back, Jakob!

EDIT to add:

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[G R E Y]

SO, our bigs situation is settled with respect to RFAs. These are both very team-friendly deals - notice they're both three years in length - to go along with DJ's team-friendly deal.

It took a while, but I think that Jakob was the first domino that needed to fall, so now we can guarantee Trey, and proceed with other moves.

[G R E Y]

gump - looks like no news is good news:

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[Phreak50]

Really happy for Eubanks.

When I first saw him I wondered how he even made a G League roster, but he has obviously worked his butt off to get where he is now.

Hopefully he keeps getting better and becomes a decent backup.

Still crossing my fingers and toes and everything else that we can move our two biggest names.

[Bornstellar]

I wish the Spurs would DO something, ANTYTHING already besides re-signing two backup Cs. It's really disappointing constantly hearing how "Spurs are up to something" for the last couple weeks and absolutely nothing comes of it. I know most of you would disagree with my desire to do something for the sake of doing it, but just to show PATFO are trying would be nice. I have no ill will toward LMA and DD but I really, really hope they get traded so we can move on from this weird half rebuild half trying to make the playoffs era and just focus on our young guys

On the plus sign they didn't announce a new deal for Forbes at 6:01 yesterday So I guess if it's basically the same team plus Vassell and minus Forbes/Marco I won't be 100% disappointed. But if they bring Forbes back......

[G R E Y]

I wish the Spurs would DO something, ANTYTHING already besides re-signing two backup Cs. It's really disappointing constantly hearing how "Spurs are up to something" for the last couple weeks and absolutely nothing comes of it. I know most of you would disagree with my desire to do something for the sake of doing it, but just to show PATFO are trying would be nice. I have no ill will toward LMA and DD but I really, really hope they get traded so we can move on from this weird half rebuild half trying to make the playoffs era and just focus on our young guys

On the plus sign they didn't announce a new deal for Forbes at 6:01 yesterday So I guess if it's basically the same team plus Vassell and minus Forbes/Marco I won't be 100% disappointed. But if they bring Forbes back......

I think we all agree that moving on from LMA and DD needs to happen. I think PATFO see it, too, if the changed style of play in the bubble and Brian Wright's acknowledgement post-draft that this is how we will play this season are an indication. But that old hard truth that it takes two sides to make a deal still stands. The tricky part is getting some value without giving up our young assets or crippling our cap, for which we seem to have specific goals.

I think if we moved LMA for a reasonable return and hung on to DD for a S&T next season then I'm ok with it. I don't see us moving forward with both this season. Plus there may be more possibilities opened up when the signings moratorium lifts.

But worst case scenario is replacing Bryn and Beli with Vassell and Jones, and that is a huge upgrade on both ends. With the G-League season not even set, they may even get some more minutes with the Spurs!

We are progressing, fellas, but it's clear the Spurs have their own pace.

It's only day two of FA. Keeping my fingers crossed we can make a little noise that benefits our team.

[imagump1313]

I wish the Spurs would DO something, ANTYTHING already besides re-signing two backup Cs. It's really disappointing constantly hearing how "Spurs are up to something" for the last couple weeks and absolutely nothing comes of it. I know most of you would disagree with my desire to do something for the sake of doing it, but just to show PATFO are trying would be nice. I have no ill will toward LMA and DD but I really, really hope they get traded so we can move on from this weird half rebuild half trying to make the playoffs era and just focus on our young guys

On the plus sign they didn't announce a new deal for Forbes at 6:01 yesterday So I guess if it's basically the same team plus Vassell and minus Forbes/Marco I won't be 100% disappointed. But if they bring Forbes back......

I hear you man, but I'm afraid we are just going to have to wait for 2021/22.

The way the roster is built, I didn't expect much from free agency because we aren't built to go sign some huge FA for this upcoming asterisk season.
The only thing we could hope for this year is a sign and trade of either DeRozan or Aldridge which seems like we have been shopping that around. It hopefully happens but i didn't expect it right off the bat. We might have to wait until the season starts and someone gets injured or some team panics and gives us a good offer for one of them as a rental.

Lets all be honest, we aren't winning anything in this upcoming season anyway no matter what we do so worst case is we stomach LMA and DDR one more year and they are off the books and we can get serious about being good again.

I don't hate Forbes as a 10-15 minute a night guy. We just can't have him playing the minutes he played last year. Either way if he gets minutes on this roster with the new guys and the guys who played well in the bubble then we are in trouble.

[G R E Y]

Welcome back, Trey!

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[G R E Y]

And here it is, gump:

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The second year is a PO.

I think he was a bit overwhelmed by the bigger role last season and things became a bit threadbare - rather than bringing up all the other aspects of his game, they tended to bring down his shooting. But offenses zeroed in on him more on O and D as he was no longer a surprise so that was an adjustment, too.

Bucks is a good spot for Bryn to just focus on his main weapon and do what he does best. It's a great story from undrafted player to starter to having a meaningful role on a contender. Thank you, Bryn! Good luck!

[G R E Y]

And finally Weatherspoon re-signs:

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[imagump1313]

If the Bucks ask too much of him they will find out pretty quickly what we already know.
I was reading some Bucks forums and their fans already are thinking they are getting something much more than what he is.

I like Weatherspoon, I hope he makes the most of it.

[G R E Y]

The state of things with the current roster:

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[G R E Y]

I altered the title to "The 2019-2020 TO 2020-2021..." to better reflect the transition we're making to this upcoming season as we look at the transactions so far:

- DeMar opted in

- Metu waived

- Drew re-signed to a $5.29M/3 year deal

- Jakob re-signed to a $27M/3 year deal

- Trey's deal was guaranteed, $5M

- Bryn signs a FA deal with the Bucks

- Quinn re-signed to a Two-Way deal

- Signed Cam Reynolds to an Exhibit 10 non-guaranteed one-year training camp deal

- Signed FA Keita Bates-Diop to a Two-Way deal

- KBD's deal likely means we sign Tre to a guaranteed contract

Last off-season, we correctly identified team needs of improving toughness and defense and went after a couple of key FAs that would have addressed both nicely. We knew we could score, but needed to become tougher to play against. We know how that turned out. Truly the losing Bertans due to Morris's asshatery was not on Wright, but on MM completely.

The Carroll deal seems to have been on Wright, though, to the extent that there was either a rush to sign or a lack of due diligence or who knows what. Nets fans on the whole said he was serviceable for them the season prior, so it's hard to believe that his level of play could have dropped off so much over an off season. He took so long to learn the plays, looked lost, did his own thing, missed shots, became unplayable. I actually thought it may have been intentional, but then he got so many DNPs on the Rockets as well and all he had to do there was run out to the wings and shoot. Maybe he really had one final decent season prior to signing with us, it really was just a huge drop off in that off-season, and he just hoodwinked us?

Anyway, good ideas gone sideways. If anything, I thought we slightly relaxed on our high character directive, and paid for it be it with karmic or causal consequences.

No wonder that this off-season there has been a decided focus on high character with the draftees - heard it repeated time and again. We have also been looking for versatile, two-way players to raise the floor and ceiling.

Looking at the list of players we met with or interviewed, it's clear we were also going for bigger, more physically imposing players if we could get them - PatWill, OO, Bay, etc. We selected Devin and Tre because they were BPA with the highest projected ceilings (and Wright said if two players had similar ceilings, then fit would be considered). We hit the character jackpots, but Brian Wright did quip in the post-draft presser that they'd love if it Vassell were not done growing, if he could end up 6'8" or 6'9". Interesting.

We are a much harder team to play against defensively just with the additions and subtractions listed alone. We are a much more versatile, two-way, high-character team. But we are not a really physically imposing team to play against yet. We can be hard nosed and resilient, but if bigger guys bowl through, there aren't too many on our roster to stop them - maybe Drew, Keldon, Lonnie, Derrick, Jakob, LMA? The bigs are fine; it's the guards and forwards who frankly need some beefing up. I like the Captain America program that Luka is on, and I think Vassell has a good frame to bulk up on even if it's more wiry than brawny.

I love that we have both raised our floor and ceiling with our acquisitions. It's tough on a personal level to let go of someone like Bryn who forced his way into a professional playing career, a single dad of two who has all the reasons in the world to stay motivated, a good team mate and coachable player. It's the part of the profession that flat out sucks, but who he is has been shaped by his time with the Spurs and it's another forever relationship forged.

Now we get to continue building up our team and it will frankly be easier to play solid team D without Pop having to slap himself in frustration. I love the direction we showed with the new style of play in the bubble; it's a fine balance that suits the strengths of more players, a fine balance between D and O, a fine balance between competitiveness and joy. It's rejuvenating to teach, execute and watch.

Team needs: more brawn so we don't get pushed around; eventually more bigs who can stretch the floor. Right now we have guards and forwards who we can use around more traditional bigs, but our O can open up all the more when we can get with more versatile bigs to match the Gs and Fs.

Team strengths: versatility, defense, new offense, togetherness and continuity.

To the last point, should we stand pat after signing Tre, an important factor to a good start is our cohesiveness. We are rested, we put in place a new style of play already, and in a shortened season, this familiarity will be important to getting ahead of teams early. Good start, good energy, good propulsion to push us forward in the right direction.

EDIT to add: I was thinking about our physicality issue, and would like to amend my earlier statement about out being too small or not strong enough. We were one of the most prepared teams going into the bubble; everyone was fit and focused. From the off-season workout posts and videos, it's clear that our guys have hit the weight room and will have increased functional strength by the time the season rolls around. So we're doing our part. Add to the mix the two two-way players - bigger, with versatility and some upside, and it looks as if we are indeed addressing our needs both internally and in the signings. Solid.