The San Antonio Spurs have money to use this summer in NBA free agency, and a new report claims they could use some of it to splurge on signing a star player from the Los Angeles Lakers.
The San Antonio Spurs are in the early stages of what they hope is a rise back to prominence. After a historic run where they were a competitive team, perennial playoff participant, and often an NBA title contender for the better part of 30 straight seasons, they have had to go through the inevitable process of a full roster rebuild in recent years.
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While they lucked out and only needed one awful year before they were able to draft NBA legend Tim Duncan, this time around they have had four straight losing seasons with 2022-2023 being the worst yet. This season the San Antion Spurs only won 22 games, however, the sad showing landed them in the lottery and in a strong position to get the top overall pick. Which they were able to do last month.
Now the Spurs are set up to select Victor Wembanyama, the most hype basketball prospect since Lebron James. While the French phenom is believed to be a can’t-miss talent that will give San Antonio the star player they have lacked for several seasons, Wembanyama will need some help if the team hopes to be a playoff team and eventual title contender again.
San Antonio Spurs could target Austin Reaves in NBA free agency
San Antonio is only behind Orlando and Houston in terms of salary cap space this summer. This means they can bring in some proven veteran pieces to make life easier for their rookie star next season. And it seems the team might view Los Angeles Lakers talent Austin Reaves as the kind of player to team up with Victor Wembanyama.
On Thursday, The Athletic NBA reporter Jovan Buha told Hoopshype that he’s “heard San Antonio could be a dark horse team that will try to poach Austin from the Lakers.”
Reaves is expected to garner a huge amount of interest this summer after rising to become the Lakers third best player this season. LA is expected to match any offer given to the restricted free agent, however, there is a point where they won’t have the cap space to match.
The question is, do the San Antonio Spurs actually want to give the undrafted talent the nine-figure deal it would take to land Reaves?