What Are the Spurs Doing?
The third extension. This is the final one we’re going to talk about and this is probably the most surprising of them all because we all knew that Luca Donuch and Muel Bridges were going to get extensions. This one potentially had the chance considering what happened though over the past, you know, few months. I’m a little surprised. So, we’ll put the tweet on the screen right now saying, “Breaking San Antonio Spurs star De’arren Fox has agreed to a 4-year $229 million max contract extension with the franchise. This Max deal secures Fox’s future in San Antonio’s through the 2029 30 season. So, Antoine, I know you were visibly shocked by this move. Yeah. What is just your pure unadulterated thoughts? Did this happen yesterday? This happened on August 4th, so two days ago at the time of recording. Yeah, we’re recording this on Wednesday. This will come out on Friday. So, this came out on Monday. Yeah. I’m just because like I didn’t think he was going to resign. Was he freeing after this year? Yes. Okay. I mean, I would say before drafting Dylan Harper was going to happen. Drafting Dylan Harper really no make doesn’t make that much sense. But at the end of the day, you have one of the best point guards in the league on your team in his prime. Uh you have an embarrassment of Riches in the back court with Harper, Stfan, and now him. Uh, of course, I think after that four-year contract for Darren Fox this one, I think it’s going to be at that time you’re going to be paying Dylan Harper his his first extension. So, I think right now, even with Stefan Castle, you mean he’s going to be a year ahead of him. But again, you shed that money off at the end, you pay it to Dylan Harper after that, after this deal concludes, I think it’s fine. You’ve rely on Darren Fox for these next four years, you pass the torch to Dylan Harper right after. I’m sure Harper’s going to get more time as it goes on in his rookie year, rookie deal. Rookie, rookie deal. Same thing as Stfan Castle. So again, I don’t think there’s nothing you could do here wrong because, you know, you did trade for him. You have someone that’s well known around the league that could do the work that you need for your starting five and for your back court and help your young guys improve. Same with Clay Chris Paul, but Chris Paul, of course, was a lot older last year compared to now. Yeah. So I think again similar to male surprising but I think at the end of the day it had to get done because again you gave up assets even though it wasn’t a bunch of assets to Sacramento because Sacramento and they don’t know how to work trades or anything related to that. So I don’t see any lose here for them. I think he’s there for the next four years like I said with male and then you move forward with what you have going for the future and you see you if you can build this team around him right now what you have and who knows maybe Dylan Harper does not work out for them and they have to move on. You still have Darren Fox in the back of your wing with Stefan Castle because we know Stfan worked out in the first year. We’re still waiting for Dylan Harper. We don’t know because listen that Rucker team this year was pretty bad in college but college again doesn’t it’s different always transit San John Har was the best player on that team ace Bailey is more the question mark that’s for Utah to worry about right but for the other guy s San Antonio got it’s I don’t think no worry for them Harper is going to turn out hopefully well for what they did for the second overall pick and then you just move on with the Aaron Fox he’ll probably go to another team at the end of his career and move forward with his life uh but I think it’s a good it’s all around good just business for Um, I think Gio would say the same thing probably. I’m I’m on that same boat sort of. Yeah, except for the fact that uh I don’t know why they got Fox to begin with. I wasn’t a big fan. Well, don’t forget it was because they needed a point guard. They didn’t. Well, they didn’t know they were getting the second pick in the draft. Yeah, that too. I Yeah, you’re right. And he wanted to go to San Antonio. That was the only option he wanted to go to on his list. I see. So, I can’t Yeah, I can’t play Monday morning quarterback or whatever you call it. You know what I mean? So, I I don’t know. They have, like you said, what did you call it? Like a embarrassing amount of embarrassment of riches. I like that term. Pretty cool term. They have an embarrassment of riches at pointing guard. And uh so yeah, I mean I guess he he got what he deserved in his money. So yeah. All right. Looks like I’m the one that disagrees here. What do you got to say? Oh my lord. First of all, this is one of the fattest overpays I think I’ve ever seen in my life. You think so? He’s making $57.5 million a year for 23 points a game. You He’s making He almost He’s making the same amount of money per year as Finals MVP Jaylen Brown. Wow. Insane. You know, when you put it into perspective like that, I think I I think I sort of agree with you on that. It’s nuts. Like, do do the Spurs know they have to pay We Wii, Castle, and Harper in the next four years? Are they a Are they good? Are they aware of that? Yeah, that’s crazy. Do they know the the trap they got themselves into? Remember, we’ve had our question marks with the Aaron Fox. Is he a winning player? I don’t think he is. You don’t think so? No. And it looks like he’s going to be in the same situation he was in Sacramento where they draft a hypertalented point guard and he’s going to wind up getting traded away because he wants to stay in one specific place. They could have easily traded him for to the Pacers for Sabonis and ran that with Hallebertton. And now you have Dylan Harper or Stefan Castle. They’re going to have to choose between one of them now. Oh yeah. Cuz they’re not going to trade him. I think they were always going to be in that situ situation where they’re going to choose between one of those two guys. Are you sure about that? Because I mean, put it put it this way, right? In five years, you could have had all three of them, Fox, not Fox, Castle, um, Harper, and Wemama along with whatever young players you had like Vel, Sohan, whoever. This team was looking so much like the Thunder except everyone was organically drafted. The Thunder traded for their best player. Fox is nowhere near their best player and he’s a lot older than everyone else and he’s eating up the cap. I don’t know what their plan is now moving forward. I mean, shout out to the Aaron Fox. Insane amount of money, but this is going to quickly be one of the worst contracts in the NBA. I mean, well, the crazy thing I It is unfortunate that they got the second overall pick. Yeah. Yet again, they could have selected somebody else. They had VJ Edgecom there. They didn’t do it though. So you can blame San Antonio for that if they didn’t want to draft another point guard. Well, it’s still the same redundant piece cuz him and Castle do the same thing. Exactly. I know. But after VJ, Khan Canappo was a massive drop. Yeah. For what you’re getting in Harbor and Edgecom, not Kappo is phenomenal, but for what Dylan Harper and VJ are promised to do in the NBA, it’s a massive step up for sure. Yeah. Uh so you can’t pass up on that just because you have Stefan Castle and De’aran Fox. Like that’s you got to choose for you got to pick who’s there available because that’s how you lose your job. If Don Harour turns out to be a polar all-star first all team guy on another West team the GM for the San Antonio Spurs is running out of town for that right or VJcom same thing. Um listen and I mean I they probably it’s tough because you can’t trade Fox after you just acquired him. Yeah they could have done that but it’s just rough. It’s a rough situation, but it’s a good situation cuz like I said, an embarrassment at Riches is not something to frown upon because teams would love to have that. But it’s just it’s just getting the playing time for those guys because you don’t want to develop a situation with Dylan Harper and Stefan Castle like Portland has with Scoot Henderson. Why they traded Simons. Yeah, it’s a big problem because Scoot was third overall pick recent drafts. We’ve not seen any development at all because that back court in Portland was so cluttered. Now you bring Drew Holiday in, he’s going to help balance that out. Anthony is gone. Shaden Sharp’s healthier now. We could see that. Hopefully it doesn’t happen because Harper and I think Stefan are a lot more talented than Scoot is, but not the the front on Scoot because I think Scoot’s gonna be phenomenal regardless. Uh but yeah, you don’t want that again because we don’t want to be talking about that again with San Antonio, especially because they’re supposed to be a playoff team, right? And if you’re ruining those top that one or the other top picks, um it could not turn out well. They could, you know, they could want to request out. You never know. Players have a lot of a lot of pull in sports for what they want. Yeah. In the NBA, we’re in the player empowerment era. And I mean, Gio, it seems to me like I don’t necessarily think it’s the fit with De’aran Fox. I think it’s the cap because I mean, 57 a year is insane. Yeah. Like, how are they going to make this work? Like, put yourself in RC Buford’s shoes. How do you attack this roster going forward with Let me pull up their payroll right now. Let me tell you like who’s up for grabs as far as like who’s eligible for contract extensions and stuff, right? Victor Wyama, you’re going to have to pay next summer. That’s massive that we know. And he’s going to get a fat contract at least 250. Looking at a 5-year deal for him. Dylan Harper, he’s got another few years obviously just got drafted. Stfan Castle, if they don’t pick up that fourth year option, they also could extend him next season. If not, they’ll extend him the year afterwards. But and you know, they got other promising young pieces. They drafted Carter Bryant. He could get playing time. Kell Johnson’s got two years left on his deal. Uh Kelly Oin on an expiring contract. So’s on an expiring contract. Like what do like what do they do? I don’t care as much as Sohan and those other guys. But it seems to me like the important players, the important pieces of this team have another two years to go. So I think you just wait it out and then you get there when you get there. Obviously, planning ahead is important. Yeah. But at the end of the day, who knows how good or how good these players are going to be in another two years, right? Maybe some players value goes up, goes down. You don’t know. Well, also Tyler said it was an overpay. Look how much they gave Luke Corn. Like, you know, that’s different. Yeah. But he’s it’s it’s different in the sense of he got the full MLE where Dearon Fox got like Jaylen Brown’s contract was at the time the highest paid contract and now Fox is making similar money. Fox has played in one playoff round. Jaylen Brown is a conference finals and finals MVP. Like he’s he’s made to the to the top. He’s proven he’s done it. Multi like perennial allstar. Not that Fox isn’t, but like you know, you have generational talent on this team and now I think only him and Vel are the only two locked in for the next four years minimum. Well, yeah. I mean, also like I brought up the scoot situation. Let’s go back to Sacramento. They had Fox and Hi drafted two point guards. Both of them are now out of town because that’s what I said before. Yeah. Oh, I’m sorry. The same thing is going to happen with Harper or Stefon Castle cuz they could wind up trading Fox easily. But if he wants to stay, the other two are going to be expendable, collateral, whatever, whatever verbiage you want to use. Is it up to him whether or not he stays or not, they can trade him. I mean, that’s up to the front office. But my indication is telling me that if they did this, they want to keep him. Yeah, he’s around. True. He’s someone that works well with Victor Webbyama. But when you have these young assets that, you know, they’re not just any they’re not just any run-of-the-mill rookies, like you don’t you don’t put them in the same category as like even a Tyrese Maxi. Like these guys are more like Maxi was the 20th overall pick. Stfan Castle was a top four pick and rookie of the year. Dylan Harper was the second overall pick. So it’s like this is different. Yeah. You have like you’re so fortunate enough. I think everyone outside of Harrison Barnes in that starting five was a top five draft pick. Wow. It’s insane. Also, listen, if Cooper Flag’s not in his draft class, Harper’s going number one for sure. Exactly. And you get VJ Edgecom and he’s the same thing as Stefan Castle. Yeah, cuz he cuz Cooper Flag reclassified. So, yeah, it’s it’s very it’s it’s murky. That’s kind of how I’ll describe the situation San Antonio’s in. I think this is the first mistake they’ve made since they started tanking in right before happened. Throwing it at Mitch Johnson in his first year too is a rough task for a new head coach as well. Mhm. And you want to try to get Mitch the best he can do and he has great players, but if you have a situation like that doesn’t work out well, Mitch could get into some serious just issues with that. I mean, to be honest, the Spurs aren’t that hard-nosed with coaches. I think they’ll give him the time he needs. And plus, they are still rebuilding, retooling. So, yeah, the Spurs, could they make the playoffs this year? Absolutely. Do I expect them to be serious contenders for the next three years? No, I really don’t. I think because right now the West is so stacked, you put the likes of OKC, Denver, and Houston alone, they’ll delete them in four games in a playoff series. Even like maybe WBY gets you a game or two, but I just don’t really see them going far. I think they should take the time to, you know, develop Webby. won’t rush this. This is a once in a generation player. Wait till he gets to his prime. And it seems that with Fox in the building and now that he’s paid all this money. I don’t know. I’m left confused. Mhm. Un unsure about what direction they necessarily want to go in. I mean, do you think it’s going to work out? We have to wait for the season. Yeah. Obvious. Well, obviously we’ll wait. But what do you think? I think it works out. I I don’t think it’s an issue. What specifically? I mean, do you think long term they’re going to be able to manage everything like this? Do you think they’ll win a championship out of this with Fox on the roster? I think there’s so much with Fox on the roster. I don’t know. But I think Wimpy’s too talented to say that to say right now that they can’t. You know what I mean? Exactly. It’s just a matter of I guess it’s really more of a question of what happens with Castle and Harper. Yeah. Because they went through all this trouble to hold them out of trade talks. Yeah. And basically you just gave an extension to the guy that’s essentially taking their money, right?
On this segment of The Floor Spacer, Tyler, Ant, and Gio talk about the contract extension for De’Aaron Fox after he was acquired in this past season’s trade deadline. At that time, we knew an extension would be coming, however, with the 2nd pick in the draft in Dylan Harper, along with ROTY Stephon Castle and of course Victor Wembanyama still needing to be paid very soon, did the Spurs make a mistake with this? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments!
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