The San Antonio Spurs could not have ended the 2023-24 season on a much better note. They went 7-4 in the final stretch of the season, including impressive wins over the Phoenix Suns, New York Knicks, New Orleans Pelicans, and Denver Nuggets, and with Victor Wembanyama developing at a rapid rate, it'll be a surprise if he doesn't cement his Hall of Fame case in Year 2. (That is, for all intents and purposes, a joke.)
Alas, even with the Spurs' impressive finish to the season, they were terrible for much of the campaign. They finished with a dreadful 22-60 record, and as things stand, they don't have enough talent around Wembanyama to seriously threaten for a playoff spot. Thus, it has become an enticing idea among fans for the Spurs to pair Wembanyama up with a star point guard who could be hitting the trade market soon in Trae Young.
However, it doesn't look like the Spurs will be the team that swings a trade with the Atlanta Hawks for their franchise point guard, at least according to Spurs reporter Mike Finger of San Antonio Express-News.
“No [they won't trade their 2024 first-round picks and a few players for Trae Young]. There are a lot of different ways this can go, and a lot of different stars they might end up targeting, but they’re not going to be the team that meets Atlanta’s price for Trae Young,” Finger wrote.
The speculation surrounding Young's future has grown louder and louder, but it seems like the Spurs are content to play their rebuild around Victor Wembanyama slowly which could be beneficial to the team's long-term prospects.
Why a Spurs and Hawks trade involving Trae Young is unlikely
The Spurs have all the assets in the world to try and build a package that would entice the Hawks to trade away Trae Young. San Antonio owns all their future first-round picks and they have a few young prospects that they could package (Jeremy Sochan, Malaki Branham, maybe even Devin Vassell).
However, the Hawks, in the event that they trade away Trae Young, will most likely be falling even further in the standings. Young will net the Hawks plenty of assets, but will that be enough to prevent them from bottoming out? Is a core of Dejounte Murray, Jalen Johnson, Onyeka Okongwu, and whatever assets the team gets for Young (maybe Austin Reaves and D'Angelo Russell? or whatever players the Brooklyn Nets package together?) enough to make up a postseason-bound team?
San Antonio has a vested interest in the Hawks' downfall; by virtue of the Murray trade in 2022, the Spurs own the Hawks' 2025 and 2o27 first-round picks as well as a swap option in 2026. By then, the Spurs will have a much better Victor Wembanyama. They could possibly draft two more lottery prospects in 2024. San Antonio has a ton of cap space.
If the Hawks end up being bad from 2025 to 2027, the Spurs could add more blue-chippers to their ranks without having to plummet down the standings themselves.
San Antonio to follow the OKC 2020s mode of rebuild?
Acquiring Trae Young will, undoubtedly, improve the Spurs quite considerably. But do the Spurs believe that a long-term partnership between Young and Victor Wembanyama is what's best for the franchise? Is it worth expediting the Spurs' contending timeline, and in so doing, preventing them from acquiring more blue-chip prospects that could set the team up for even greater long-term success?
Meanwhile, the Thunder were very patient with their rebuild. They were dreadful for two years, but it allowed them to draft the following prospects in the lottery to add alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: Josh Giddey in 2021, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams in 2022, and Cason Wallace in 2023.
Now, Oklahoma City has blossomed into one of the best teams in the NBA, re-assuming the spot they lost in the mid-2010s. They are the one-seed in the Western Conference, and they still have a plethora of draft picks on the way which they could use to acquire a superstar that they believe would be the missing piece for a championship-filled future.
The Spurs can emulate the path the Thunder have taken; they have their franchise player in Victor Wembanyama and players who could be long-term, support pieces (Devin Vassell, Jeremy Sochan, Keldon Johnson). Now, all San Antonio needs is to find their own version of Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, and it might be worth being bad for at least one more year to try and pick up a long-term dance partner that would bring out the best in Wembanyama.
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