As the Spurs look to build their roster around Victor Wembanyama, one trade candidate has already emerged for San Antonio.
The San Antonio Spurs may be 19-59 this season, but they were expected for them to be at the bottom of the Western Conference in 2023-24. However, San Antonio’s primary goal for this year has been accomplished.
The Spurs know that Victor Wembanyama is a certified building block. All he has done this season is average 21.3 points per game, 10.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 3.6 blocks, and 1.3 steals per game. He’s done that on 46.5% shooting from the field. His steals and blocks don’t even capture all the brilliance he’s able to show on defense as a rookie. Wembanyama is legit.
The objective now for the Spurs is to surround him with the right pieces to help San Antonio win. Some of those players are on their roster, including the likes of Devin Vassell and Tre Jones. But not everyone on the Spurs has looked like a clean fit with Wembanyama.
One of those players has been Keldon Johnson. San Antonio could look to flip him to find other players whose skillsets mesh better with their rising superstar.
Keldon Johnson, Forward
Keldon Johnson is not a bad player by any means. He has an Olympic gold medal to his name and averaged 22 points per game during the 2022-23 season. But he’s a player the Spurs could look to deal for a multitude of reasons.
For one, he isn’t a great shooter. Johnson has only one season under his belt where he has shot above 35% from three on real volume. He is a career 35.8% shooter, but his 2021-22 campaign where he shot 39.8% from distance looks like an outlier number. Wembanyama is going to need all the space he can get. While Johnson isn’t a bad shooter, he could compromise that.
Another reason why Johnson could get dealt in the right deal is his style of game. He likes to slash and bully through defenders as a driver. He and Wembanyama could make that work with his ability to stretch the floor, but that would not be the best way to play to Wembanyama’s skillset.
It hasn’t always worked out great this season, however. The Spurs have a -4.2 net rating with both Wembanyama and Johnson on the floor this season according to Cleaning the Glass.
That data is skewed a bit by the Spurs’ youth and lineup experimentation done by Gregg Popovich, but Pop also benched Johnson midway through the season. Johnson has played in 69 games but only made 27 starts.
Spurs star gazing
Lastly, Johnson’s contract situation could put him on the trade block. The Spurs are flush with assets. They own two unprotected first-round picks from the Atlanta Hawks. San Antonio also has protected picks coming in from the Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Charlotte Hornets, and Boston Celtics in the next five years. They could still have some excess picks left over even after making a trade for a star if one becomes available in the summer.
However, the Spurs are going to need to make the money work to make that kind of trade feasible. They’re going to have roughly $23 million in salary cap space as things stand, but that could increase depending on what they do with Devonte Graham and his largely unguaranteed contract. It’s more than possible, however, that Johnson’s $19 million salary owed to him next year may have to be part of a deal to make the money work.
The Spurs may be a young team, but they already have a top-20 player in the league in Wembanyama. If the right deal comes knocking at their door, they shouldn’t hesitate to open it and explore. That could mean parting ways with young players like Johnson on top of the picks they’ve hoarded over the years. It’s all worth it when a team has a player like Wembanyama.
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