San Antonio Spurs: Will They Fill Their Final Roster Spot?

This article is about the San Antonio Spurs’ 15th roster spot which is, at this point in free agency and the offseason, something of minimal value.  But, with that said, the Spurs do have one open roster spot, meaning the question has arisen: Will the San Antonio Spurs fill their final roster spot?  So, let’s look at several of the options the Spurs have to add one more player to the roster and whether it is beneficial to do so.

If you choose to believe the rumors, the Spurs appear to be interested in picking up another big man.  Reports have been circulating for months that the Spurs have been pursuing free-agent center Greg Oden.  The Spurs have been labeled by various sources as co-favorites (whatever that actually means) to land Oden.  The Spurs have also been recently rumored to be interested in Denver Nuggets big man Timofey Mozgov.

With the Spurs biggest need at the small forward position and with six big men currently on the roster, it is a bit surprising they are being linked to only centers.  Maybe general manager R.C. Buford is channeling his inner John Hammond and has decided to make the Spurs the “Bucks South” and field a team entirely of 4s and 5s.  I am not sure what Buford is thinking, but a seventh big man seems excessive, especially if its Mozgov.  However, I can understand the rationale for Greg Oden.  It is no secret that the Spurs Big Three is aging and outside Kawhi Leonard, there is no one with All-Star level potential on the team.  The odds on Oden not only staying health but being the player he was projected to be are probably somewhere close to 1 billion-to-1, but I believe that taking the risk on Oden is worth it.  Even if it is just the smallest of chances he could finally become a franchise cornerstone, don’t you really have to take it?

The logical move for the Spurs would be to fill the position of their most apparent need, the small forward position.  That position was manned by the mercurial Stephen Jackson last year, until he was cut for conduct detrimental to the team.  The Spurs then picked up Tracy McGrady right before the playoffs for the seeming sole purpose of having T-Mac make a shot in the playoffs so that Twitter could explode.  Unfortunately, T-Mac could not even manage to score one point and we still have Twitter. I’m assuming this was the reason the Spurs opted not to bring back Tracy McGrady.  In the playoffs, T-Mac never played outside of garbage time and Danny Green filled in admirably for Leonard as the Spurs made do with a 3-guard lineup.

However, 82 games is a really long season and Kawhi is already misssing Team USA practice to rest his troublesome knee.  Kawhi is young enough to play 40 minutes a night, but because of his knee I do not think that is something that should be sustained over an 82-game season.  Danny Green is good in spot minutes at the 3, but he should not be the permanent backup due to size and defensive issues.  Marco Belinelli is not an option.  So it seems it would behoove the Spurs to pick up a backup small forward.  Outside of Mike Miller‘s basketball-playing corpse, which is already being well pursued, there are not many viable free-agent options.  So, the player that most Spurs fan have been clamoring for is Deshaun Thomas after his scintillating Summer League performance.  HoopsHabit’s own John Lugo has very adequately addressed Thomas’ chances for making the Spurs’ final roster spot.  In short, Thomas has some work to do before he can be relied on even in spot minutes as Leonard’s relief.

The final option, and the most likely one, is that the Spurs do nothing.  Historically, the Spurs have opted to keep one or two rosters spots open to add players during season.  The Spurs originally signed Boris Diaw off waivers wires toward the end of the 2011-12 season.  The Spurs have also signed overseas players midseason and brought them stateside.  This is how Patrick Mills and Aron Baynes arrived on the team.  The Spurs have never been ones to limit themselves on improving the team, especially the fringes, and that is what we are talking about here … the fringes.    So unless Greg Oden chooses to sign with the Spurs, I believe the current 14-man roster is the one that you will see at least until the trade deadline this season.  Again, this roster was within five seconds of an NBA title in June, so why mess with what works?