The San Antonio Spurs have been named a key team to watch ahead of the NBA trade deadline, although the main priority for the team remains the same.
The San Antonio Spurs are not only one of the top teams in the NBA, but are also one of only a few franchises with an excess of both draft picks and young talent.
As the Spurs continue to build around Victor Wembanyama, they have an easy path to land a win-now superstar and have been linked to the likes of Trey Murphy II, Lauri Markkanen, and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
If Antetokounmpo is moved before the deadline, whichever team he lands on will immediately become a championship contender. The Spurs are no exception, although they have little motivation to break the bank for an elite player nearing the end of his prime.
Spurs Won't Trade For Giannis
The main priority for the Spurs is building around Wembanyama. There's no reason not to believe that he can't be the centerpiece on a title-winning team, and the Spurs' tradeable assets would be better spent on bolstering the supporting cast instead of overhauling the roster with another superstar.
Even as the Spurs are linked to Antetokounmpo, there is very little interest internally in adding him.
"I've been told by folks with the Spurs, 'We're not a home for Giannis,' reported insider Tim MacMahon on the Hoop Collective podcast. "And there's been a lot of smoke around that, like going back to the summer, but everything in San Antonio is about the Wemby timeline. And this is a decade past the Wemby timeline when you bring in Giannis at his age."
It makes sense. Not only would the Spurs have to match salary, but they would likely have to cough up either Dylan Harper or Stephon Castle, and the two Rising Stars are too integral to San Antonio's long-term plans.
If the Spurs don't make a blockbuster move, they are already contenders and will remain as such as long as Wembanyama is healthy. If they gut their depth for Giannis, then they will be frontrunners, but only as long as he's healthy.
It's a much shorter timeline, and the Spurs have always planned years in advance. It's why they remained on top even as their Big Three core aged past their primes, and it helped set them up for the future they're currently building towards.