The San Antonio Spurs on Thursday morning made the surprising decision to rescind their $1.6 million qualifying offer on veteran forward Jonathon Simmons making him an unrestricted free agent.
According to Jabari Young of San Antonio Express-News, the Spurs had recently turned down a sign-and-trade offer for Simmons that would have sent them center Tyson Chandler from the Phoenix Suns.
After talks on a new contract stalled, a sign-and-trade with the Phoenix Suns was presented. The deal featured the Spurs getting center Tyson Chandler in exchange for Simmons, but at the last minute, the Spurs backed out of the trade, not wanting to take on the remaining two years and roughly $26 million on Chandler’s deal.
Chandler is coming off another productive campaign in his 16th year in the league where he averaged 8.4 points and 11.5 rebounds while starting in 46 of the 47 games played. That said, the 34-year-old is set to enter the final two years of his deal that will pay him nearly $26 million over that span.
This is also a bit of surprising news given that the Spurs hold some high value on Simmons, who has developed into a reliable player off the bench in his first two seasons in the league with the team. Things have taken an interesting turn on Thursday as the 27-year-old is reportedly finished with contract negotiations with San Antonio and is talking to several other teams.
The Spurs have done what they could to retain Simmons. The ball is now in his court after becoming an unrestricted free agent giving him the ability to choose the next destination of his NBA career.
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