San Antonio Spurs: Pros and cons of signing Derrick Rose

Decision time

For his part, Rose seems quite amiable to helping his next prospective team with contract negotiations.

Towards the latter part of this season, Rose addressed his thoughts on the upcoming fee agency period:

"“Not even thinking money. I’ve got more than enough money saved. If I stopped playing basketball now, I’ll be all right. I want to win. I want to be happy and feel at peace with myself wherever I’m at. But being at the negotiating table, you never know. I’m not going to negotiate with people where money is the No. 1 thing I’m asking for. I want to win.”"

With this in mind, the Spurs naturally jump close near the top of Rose’s wish list. Obviously, the interest will need to be mutual. And standing in Rose’s way may be the fact that there are several other top-notch point guards out of contract this summer.

This season, Rose had one of his most impressive overall games against the Spurs, posting 24 points, five rebounds and five assists. Here are the highlights of this performance:

A report just recently emerged that the Los Angeles Clippers’ are concerned that their resident point guard, Chris Paul, could be tempted to join the Spurs this summer.

But this reported pursuit, as would be the case with Rose, will be done:

"“….even though the Spurs, at present, have virtually no salary-cap flexibility.”"

But the financial sacrifice this will require from Paul ensures that the Clippers remain the frontrunners to obtain his signature. Considering Rose’s lengthy history with injury, it’s quite difficult to ascertain how much a team such as the Spurs would be prepared to offer, and how steep of a discount he’d be willing to accept.

And not only is the money to be outlaid to Rose the main issue. It’s also the clearing of some important players top ensure the Spurs come under the salary cap for next year and beyond. If San Antonio misses out on the other top-tier point guards this summer, perhaps Rose could be an option, but probably not one they’d be willing to clear out contracts for.

Next: 5 potential landing spots for Chris Paul in free agency

So while at this stage a union between Rose and the Spurs seems unlikely, there are few other environments around the league that could bring out the best of a player of Rose’s caliber.