Transcription
All right, a happy Sunday. Happy uh first day of the off season, partially offseason. We we'll explain a little bit about that in a minute here, but uh we have uh two teams left to do the video for. We are going to do uh a San Antonio Spurs video and then we will uh eventually do a New York Knicks video.
Congratulations to the New York Knicks, the NBA world uh world champion. Certainly a great feat and I think certainly uh a great feat for San Antonio based on um where you were and where you are right now and as we saw in the finals uh still a lot more work to be done uh internally uh and certainly kind of adding maybe a little bit from the outside here. Uh we're not going to do a a series recap. I think we've kind of um people have gone through that at length here. I I did I do think it showed you a little bit a kind of a contrast and difference as far as where New York is and where San Antonio is.
And I I'm the one who who picked San Antonio and I thought um I thought based on what we saw the body of work this season and certainly that Oklahoma City series I thought their guards would have had their little bit more of their way and uh certainly Darren Fox struggled and we know how that goes and uh certainly at the end of the game here and as I said I wasn't going to break down a little bit of uh how the series went and here I am doing it but let's uh so let's talk a little bit about San Antonio which I do believe and when we show you these um when we show you um the graphics and their salary uh situation, they're in uh they're in a really good position.
We wrote the offseason article for San Antonio um during the Oklahoma City series. And at the time, and I still stand by this, it was um I think I've been doing this is year nine at ESPN of writing offseason articles. Uh two at Yahoo. This might have been probably one of the more easier offseason articles. Uh New York was wasn't terribly challenging either. Um offseason articles that we I've written in a long time just based on kind of where San Antonio is with their roster and and kind of moving forward.
So as we know 62 and 20 they've got four picks in the u in the upcoming draft. One in the uh one in the first from uh Atlanta that was a swap and then they've got three seconds 35 42 and 44. 35 I think it's got pretty good value. 42 44. Um how this draft is shaping up. Um certainly those could be uh things that are potentially could be on move or maybe a two-way those type players here. But I think for San Antonio going into the night of the draft certainly optionality here.
I think you've got um where are you at? 20 Christian Anderson, Chris Sakh. Um there are um I don't think Morz Johnson's there. There's a lot of different ways. um a lot of different ways. I think uh Dance Swain uh from Texas the the the kind of a bigger wing I guess uh there's a certainly a lot of um as I said a lot of different directions you can go at 20 and everything like that. But when we look at the roster overall here are your free agents. Harrison Barnes, Bismach Biombo, Julian Champ, who we're going to talk about at length. He's got a team option which is pretty pretty interesting. Jordan Mclofflin, Kelly Olen, Lindy Waters, Harris Ingram, David Jones Garcia, and Mason Plumbley. Um, a couple of those guys are your two ways here.
When you look at the potential of this roster, they've only scratched the surface, and I know when you win 62 games, u, and I say you only scratched the surface, that is a a pretty scary thought as far as where they are. Um, just based on what's coming back, uh, certainly the anchor in Victor, who is now going into year four of a rookie contract. when you have players on rookie contracts like Victor, uh Stefon Castle, Dylan Harper, um player Carter Bryant, who I think we're going to probably see more of, uh next year. We saw a little bit of a glimpse of him this year and during the playoffs. When you have players like that on rookie contracts, it just gives you all the optionality in the world.
So, you've got your starting five that you saw in the in the playoffs and and certainly in the finals, 21 and three as a group this year. uh second best starting lineup in the NBA behind Oklahoma City. This is during the regular season. Uh and you've got your reserves back in Kell Johnson, Dylan Harper, Carter Bryant, and Luke Cornet. So, you've got your top nine players coming back um with your roster. So, let's show you um let's share this and we are going to show you.
All right. So, here you are roster-wise, right? As I said, kind of your five starters. You've got your four reserves, your top nine. And then you've got some gaps to fill. You figure pick 20 will get will fill one of these gaps here. I love Christian Anderson from u from Texas Tech, man. I think he's I think he's a stud. He could fit in. He fits the identity as far as what this group is. I I don't know if he'll be there at at 20. Um and so you've got these three seconds. We've talked about them. Here are your free agents that we talked about. You are in terrific shape financially. Um you're at 161 luxury tax 2011. Look where you are apron wise. You're going to be able to go out and use your non-tax mid-level exception. Hello, Ruy Hachamura. That would be the guy I would want to target out there. Um, kind of a stretch for that maybe can complement Victor. You can go a little bit bigger in size. Uh, you've got your bannual, you've got your first and second round, and you've got your veteran minimum exception. So, roster-wise, as we were talking about it, you are in really good shape. We're going to show the the um the finances um um in a minute here. So let's stop the share. Okay.
So that is it roster-wise here. Okay. So the foundation is in place, right? We know the foundation is in place. The the hard part is is that when you get to the NBA finals and having done it twice and we were certainly in New Jersey an older group, um there's no guarantee to go back. Um, and I say that because year three in New Jersey after going losing two years in a row, I thought we would be there again and we weren't and we never went back again. And the rosters change and um, you'll lose some players on this group, but as I said, your top nine's coming back. Um, youngest roster to average more than 10 points per game during the regular season. It's pretty impressive. All right, we showed you your finances.
All right, so here's your priorities going into uh into the off season. Certainly uh Victor is a priority. He is now extension eligible. The numbers are fluid. Um and when we do the when we Shams tweets out uh Victor Webbyama signs a 5-year um $252 million max rookie extension that increase to 303. The 303 is based on if he hits AllNBA MVP defensive player of the year. There'll be an escalator in there which will likely happen. If we if you see higher numbers, that means we're projecting it on based on a 10% salary cap increase in 2027 28. We don't have that number yet. So, we're basically going off whether it be projections. That number doesn't get locked in until next year. The league will send teams and a memo. We'll get our hands on it at the end of the month saying, "Hey, the salary cap for 2627 is at 60 165 million. Here is the projection in 202728und let's say $87 million. Then we work off the projection on an extension for Victor rookies. Um most guys who are veteran extension eligible there. It is just a pro as I said just a projection. You are not locked in um to uh into that number. It's certainly a fluid number here. Uh, I think the biggest thing for him, um, negotiation wise will be if there's a player option in there, and we rarely saw that. Uh, but I think for him, you basically will get anything you want. Apollo, Luca, and Trey Young are the last three since uh, since 2019. Just doesn't happen as much, but I would I would not be surprised if there is a uh, rookie extension um, player option in there.
And then um, as I said, you can be really active in free agency based on the flexibility. Um, if you don't bring Harrison Barnes back, you you're going to have to I think you need a combo big to compleiment Victor. I think you need some more guard depth. Um, I think you need some veterans with that group. That offense certainly became discombobulated. Uh, certainly in late games that is why you went out and acquired Darren Fox to basically kind of um, you know, pick up the slack from a veteran standpoint and that was certainly a little bit of an it was an Achilles here. Um so that is where you are um as far as your priority. Certainly Victor then it goes to um what do you do with your non-axment level exception? What do you do with um what do you do with uh your your bianual? If you use the bannual it's not available next year it's about 5.6 rarely used. Remember you could use those to trade for players into uh you've got some trade chips. Um and you've got some guys going into their last year of their contract.
So, let's show you and then I'm going to talk a little bit about Julian as far as um what will happen with him potentially. All right. So, here are you. Here you are financially. That's why I was when I'm talking about it, they are in really good shape. So, here's the Fox number. This might be a little bit lower. It might be like 495. Um it's a it's a big one. I mean, it's a the problem is when you give Fox, it's a I call it a kind of a circumstantial max contract. It doesn't bite you in the rear end because you've got all these players. You've got Victor, you've got Dylan, you've got Cornet, Castle, Bryant, no other player making $30 million more on him. Now, what happens is eventually he's going to get paid. He's going to paid. So, Victor this summer will get paid. It will hit in 2728. Castle next summer it will hit in 20829. Um Harper the two summers from now it will hit in 2930. It eventually starts to add up where he will will eventually become the odd man out. It is the reality of the business as far as when you're balancing the salary cap as far as what will happen here. Fox is a two-year stop gap, if maybe maybe even a one-year stop gap, one more year to when he will take over. And I think you already saw that in the finals that he is starter ready. He is big time. Um, and now it's a matter of kind of adding a little more pieces.
The the question now becomes with some of your players that are extension eligible like Kell Johnson who's at $18 million now he's going to be a free agent. Do you extend? and then the numbers start to add up a little bit. We're going to talk a little bit about Julian who's in an interesting spot. He's got a $3 million team option here. There's a couple different options that um San Antonio will go. Here is where we were looking capwise. Tax room really in good shape. Apron room uh perfect shape. And then uh second apron 61. So you're in awesome awesome shape.
So for Julian here are your options. What will happen? either they will exercise the option for $3 million. Okay. And he's on he's locked into that and then they will extend starting in 202728. I think his number is uh let's find it. Let's stop the share. Let's find his number. Okay. Um All right. So, you can exercise the option and then extend for four more years starting at 21.2 $.2 million. I think it goes up to a little north of $90 million. Okay. Or you can decline the option and you have the flexibility to do it because remember we showed you where you are financially to decline the option. Bump is up bump his number up to maybe 156 million maybe even a little bit more. Um and then kind of work off that there. So it's it's kind of like when we did name Cada in Boston you Boston is a little bit different because financially it's a little bit tighter. It's a lot more tighter than when San Antonio is. So, pay attention to the option. If it's declined, do not be alarmed if it if the option for Julian is declined. There's already an agreement in place that will lock him up for the foreseeable future. You do not decline the option and let him become a free agent and let him play the field. So, we'll pay attention to that option here.
Kell Johnson, as I said, he's extension eligible. Also Devin Vel is extension eligible but he's got three years left. There's no need to go out and do do anything with him. Olen and Barnes uh two free agents uh need team needs besides shooting development from Castle Harper and Bryant reserve stretch four that can complement Victor. Also kind of as we talked about backcourt depth draft assets you are locked and loaded. You are in my tier one of draft assets. you have um and we we have that article out that you can go out and um read on uh n ESPN.com. Four picks this year's in this year's draft, one in the first and then next year, man, here's your future. You you have four tradable first, you've got 14 seconds, you got swap rights, you've got an unprotected Atlanta first and 27. Your pick next year either goes to um Sacramento if it's in the top 16 or Oklahoma City if it's 17 to 30. Um that was from the um that was from the de'arren Fox trade with the Kings. So you've got an unprotected first from Atlanta. You've got swap with rights with Boston in 28 top one protected. You have swap rights in 2030 more favorable of Dallas and Minnesota. Minnesota of 2 to 30 and then 2031 swap rights with Sacramento here.
So, as I said, you are in really, really good shape from a financial standpoint, from a draft ledger standpoint to be able to add this off season, to be able to add in the draft, to be able to add in free agency, the ability to get better um internally, which is going to be the most important thing. Uh and then come back and compete to try to get to another um NBA finals. And of course, you're going to have to go through. We kind of know who's out there. Um and um you will be as I guess one of the the odds places has them as them in Oklahoma City as the top two favorites. Uh I don't know why New York's not in there, but that's a story for another day. But so that is it all in all for your San Antonio Spurs. A really good season. You should be proud if you are a Spurs fan because this is certainly something really to build out. And as I said, they've only scratched the surface and how good this team could be. But I look like straight down with the heat. I'm on fire.