The San Antonio Spurs are being cautioned against making one specific trade, and you might be surprised at the reason.

The San Antonio Spurs boast one of the NBA's most talented young rosters heading into the 2025-26 campaign, and while they may not be ready to truly contend just yet, they are getting close.

That being said, the Spurs have still made some odd moves recently. Perhaps the strangest was what they have decided to do with De'Aaron Fox, first trading for him last February and then signing him to a massive contract extension during the summer.

Fox is a good player, but San Antonio's decision to add him — and extend him — was strange considering that the Spurs already have Stephon Castle in the backcourt, and the Fox-Castle tandem does not seem to be a great fit.

Nevertheless, Fox is now under contract in San Antonio through 2030, so he'll be around for the long haul barring a trade, which is something we can never dismiss.

Sam Quinn of CBS Sports has actually listed Fox as a potential trade candidate, but he thinks moving the 27-year-old would be dangerous for one reason: Rich Paul.

"Plenty called for the Spurs to move Fox preemptively this offseason and focus on the youth. That'd be much more politically fraught than it sounds," Quinn wrote. "Fox stuck his neck out for a San Antonio team that typically doesn't recruit stars. Moving him right away sends a message to other players about how they might be treated if they also try to get to San Antonio. If nothing else, you don't want to piss off an agent as powerful as Rich Paul. San Antonio has to let this play out for the time being. But sooner or later, one of those guards is moving. So it will be a storyline until it's settled."

Of course, the Spurs cannot allow Paul — or any agent — to dictate what they do. Perhaps trading Fox would cause them to being crossways with Paul, but if San Antonio feels that moving Fox is the answer, then it is what it is.

That being said, it seems very unlikely that the Spurs would jettison Fox immediately after extending him. Perhaps it's something they would consider next year if it becomes more and more obvious that the fit with Castle simply isn't working.

It should be noted that Fox averaged 19.7 points per game on 44.6/27.4/81.9 shooting splits in 17 games with San Antonio last season. Not exactly encouraging numbers.