Why this trade makes sense for the San Antonio Spurs
While they are very much in the playoff picture in the Western Conference, the San Antonio Spurs have some big decisions to make regarding the future of some of their veteran talents. With LaMarcus Aldrdige requesting to be traded or bought out of his contract at this point, it seems like the Spurs are going to hold on to both DeMar DeRozan and Rudy Gay in their efforts to potentially make it back to the playoffs.
While it may not be the value they had hoped for with Aldridge at the beginning of the year, they are still getting a fair amount of value from the Heat in this deal. Both Kelly Olynyk and Andre Iguodala can aid in the Spurs’ playoff push this year and with Olynyk being in the final year of his contract, San Antonio would have just above $12M in cap space freed up at the end of the season.
Not only does this give them more money to potentially re-sign DeRozan in the offseason, but potentially pursue another big name, max-contract type of player. The Spurs payroll for next season is only $59.1M and if they were to sign DeRozan with their extra cap space, they would still have $20M+ to play around with and continue to build their team back into a real championship contender.
The first-round pick San Antonio receives in this trade is also very valuable since it is for the 2022 NBA Draft. The Spurs have built their team through the draft for years now and they could continue this philosophy and draft even more youthful, high-potential talent.
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Trading LaMarcus Aldridge is definitely the right move for the Spurs to make, especially since they do not gain anything from buying him out of his contract. While they may have to take back less value than they had hoped, the Spurs need to trade Aldridge for their long-term success.
It makes no sense for them to buy him out of his contract when numerous teams have expressed interest in him, which is why they should be willing to take on some bigger contracts like Iguodala’s and Olynyk’s in order to gain the value of a draft pick.
As mentioned earlier, both Andre Iguodala and Kelly Olynyk are both still impactful players and could definitely provide some much needed bench depth for the Spurs to aid them in their playoff pursuit. This is definitely not a terrible trade for the Spurs to consider and with LaMarcus Aldridge wanting out, they receive fair value for him with the Miami Heat.
