When the San Antonio Spurs exhausted a lottery pick on Florida State guard Devin Vassell in the 2020 NBA Draft, the hope was that he’d become a franchise cornerstone.
After a slow start to his career (5.5 PPG as a rookie in 2020-21), San Antonio firmly believes it has that in the 23-year-old guard.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Spurs have inked Vassell to a five-year, $146 million rookie-scale contract extension ahead of the 2023-24 NBA season. Andrew Morrison, Rich Beda and Mitch Nathan of CAA Sports confirmed this news with ESPN.
The 6-foot-5 wing has seen major improvement each of the past two seasons. Vassell averaged 12.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists on 43% shooting as a sophomore in 2021-22. Prior to going down with a knee injury in January that cost him two months, Vassell was in the midst of a breakout campaign.
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Devin Vassell stats (2022-23): 18.5 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 3.6 APG, 44% shooting, 39% 3-point
The Spurs obviously view Vassell as an important part of their rebuild. That was made clear by handing him nearly $30 million annually for the next five seasons.
For San Antonio, this comes months after the team selected a generational prospect in Victor Wembanyama from France No. 1 overall in the 2023 NBA Draft.
Head coach Gregg Popovich will be relying on Vassell as well as another high-scoring wing in Keldon Johnson to help Wembanyama expedite the rebuild process in Texas.
Under Pop’s leadership, the San Antonio Spurs earned five NBA titles and made the playoffs each season from 1997-2019. Since then, the Spurs haven’t finished with more than 34 wins in a season and have failed to make the playoffs each year.