Fans of the San Antonio Spurs have largely accepted two contradictory statements as truth.

In one corner, the fan base believes that the team would be better without De'Aaron Fox and his maximum contract on the roster. This argument is largely propped up by his lackluster performance in the NBA Finals and has resulted in swirling trade rumors regarding the All-Star.

The very same fans, though, seem to insist that the Spurs can get back at least a talented young player in a trade. After all, they would argue, Fox is a solid point guard, the Spurs just have Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper lying in wait.

The truth, as always, is a bit more compliocatyed thjan that.

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It stands to reason that if the Spurs shouldn't want Fox, why should any other team? Those loyal to the Silver and Black have convinced themselves that a team like Boston or Memphis (just examples!) would readily employ Fox, forgetting that those franchises would be hung up on the same downsides the Spurs are currently stuck with.

If the Spurs don't want to pay Fox $229 million over the next four seasons, why would any other team? In order to part with him, the Spurs will have to sweeten the pot.

"Not many teams are eager to take on a contract like this, and if the Spurs could move it without paying draft picks anywhere, doing so would probably make sense," wrote CBS Sports' Sam Quinn. "Realistically, you're probably looking at teams with bad contracts of their own to move. Maybe Toronto would flip the cheaper Immanuel Quickley along with RJ Barrett or Jakob Poeltl for him, as an example, but even that seems unlikely."

It's worth noting that Quin used the Raptors as an example and did not explicitly list them as a reasonable landing spot. However, his argument is spot on.

Fox is a bad contract. In order to rid themselves of him, the Spurs will have to either give up a prime asset of their own or take back a different bad deal, like Barrett or Quickley.

Of course, the Spurs have long beaten the drum that they want to move forward with Fox as a core member of their team. Maybe he can gain some trade value as the season goes on, or maybe he can regain the goodwill fans once extended to him.

Either way, he has some work to do.