2018 NBA free agency grades: Spurs will re-sign Bryn Forbes
The San Antonio Spurs have agreed to re-sign Bryn Forbes to a two-year deal. Here are grades for the move.
Bryn Forbes and the San Antonio Spurs have agreed to a two-year deal, per Shams Charania of Yahoo! Sports. The restricted free agent is about to enter his third NBA season. Forbes, a shooting guard out of Michigan State, was one of the few Spurs to play almost every game last season.
In 80 games, he averaged 6.9 points, 1.4 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 0.4 steals in 19.0 minutes per game. He shot the ball at a 42.1 percent clip from the floor and shot 39.0 percent from beyond the arc.
Compare this to his first year, where Forbes only played 36 games. In those games, he averaged only 2.6 points, 0.6 rebounds and 0.6 assists in 7.9 minutes per game. His shooting was also worse in his first season, at only 36.4 percent from the field and 32.1 percent from beyond the 3-point line.
It is this improvement that must have been the basis for the Spurs re-signing Forbes. What makes the improvement impressive is it came on a team missing a number of key players for large chunks of the season. It was also on a Spurs team that made playoffs when it was not expected to.
Forbes’ role moving forward with the Spurs
As mentioned earlier, Forbes’ role has grown with the San Antonio Spurs. He more than doubled his games played from 36 to 80. He even started 12 games last season, compared to none the year before.
More than half of these starts were after Tony Parker came back from injury. Now with Parker going to the Charlotte Hornets, his 19.5 minutes per game have opened up at the guard spot.
Most of these minutes will be taken up by newly re-acquired guard Marco Belinelli. Add him to the rest of the guards who are fighting for playing time and there is a logjam for minutes.
The Spurs have Belinelli, Danny Green, Patty Mills, Manu Ginobili, Dejounte Murray, Brandon Paul, Derrick White and rookie Lonnie Walker IV all fighting for minutes. The loss of Kyle Anderson and the trade request of Kawhi Leonard will have an impact on this.
Green will play extended minutes at the small forward position, which will open more time for the guards. Ginobili will most probably see his role reduced further from last season or he may retire.
Paul has a non-guaranteed contract and so he may be released prior to the season depending on the Spurs’ positional needs. Forbes was also preferred to Paul and White last season, so he should see his minutes increase again.
Forbes will certainly have the chance to make a bigger impact on the Spurs’ roster this season. It is hard to see him replacing the productivity of the players who have left, but his improvement is there for all to see.
The Spurs would hope that Forbes can take the same leap that Murray did last season. If this can happen, then the San Antonio Spurs will have a solid backcourt to complement the talents of LaMarcus Aldridge in the frontcourt. His 3-point talents will certainly create a lot more space in the paint.
Next: 2018 NBA free agency tracker: Grades for every deal so far
Grade: B+