Once the most promising young player on the San Antonio Spurs, Devin Vassell has settled in as a quality role player, although his trade value continues to decline with each passing season.
This is not a hit piece on Devin Vassell. In his five full seasons with the San Antonio Spurs, he has blossomed into a quality floor-spacer who can create for himself with and without the ball in his hands.
His career averages of 14.1 points and 3.8 rebounds to go with 36.8% shooting from deep are far from elite, but he's a capable player who can thrive in a variety of lineups.
Drafted 12th overall out of Florida State in 2020, he has slowly become one of the better players in the Spurs' rotation. However, his trade value is at an all-time low.
Once thought to be a pretty untouchable piece of the Spurs' long-term future, he isn't a negative asset, but he's also not the type of player the Spurs could build a blockbuster deal around. For fans who long believed Vassell was poised for stardom, this could be a hard pill to swallow.
Devin Vassell's Value Has Steadily Declined
In his third season, Vassell averaged 18.5 points and shot a career-best 38.7% from 3. In order to lock him in, the Spurs signed him to a 5-year, $146 million contract extension, keeping him under team control through 2028-29.
That deal is the second-most expensive contract in Spurs' history, behind only De'Aaron Fox's $229 million extension signed this summer. Not Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, or Kawhi Leonard. It's Devin Vassell who broke the bank.
Is he worth it? In the NBA, $29.2 million per season can get you a quality player. Isaiah Hartenstein, RJ Barrett, and Myles Turner are all on comparable contracts. Draymond Green makes less. Is Vassell better than those players? Nope, but when the Spurs signed him, he was 22 years old and coming off a great season.
A regression was not in the cards.
Vassell is paid like a very good player. The reality is that he is just a good player. After this year, he is still under contract for three more seasons, eating up roughly 18% of the salary cap. His contract isn't bad, but it's not exactly "team-friendly."
On a very good team (like this year's Spurs), Vassell would be the fourth or fifth best player, all things considered. His salary could easily be used to balance that of a superstar, especially if the Spurs added Keldon Johnson, Kelly Olynyk, or Harrison Barnes in the deal.
In years past, fans would have been enraged by the idea of trading Vassell. He was a third-year player on track to be one of the best wings in the NBA, after all. He got paid based on potential, although he hasn't quite hit the bar the Spurs were expecting.
Vassell is not a negative trade asset. However, he alone is not able to move the needle much. Had the Spurs traded him immediately after he signed his extension (not saying that would have been a good idea!), his value on the market would have been a lot higher. Instead, he is now just a piece in a bigger deal, should the Spurs decide to move him.
He's gotten off to a slow start to this season, which hasn't helped things, and Barnes and Julian Champagnie are having great seasons so far. His value has never been lower, but his expendability is at an all-time high.