San Antonio Spurs: 3 outside-the-box trades for DeMar DeRozan
By Ethan Becker
If the rumors are true, or even if they aren’t, it may be helpful for the San Antonio Spurs to begin looking into trade packages fro DeMar DeRozan.
Listen, you’ve heard them, I’ve heard them, apparently even he’s heard them. Trade rumors are abound for San Antonio Spurs star DeMar DeRozan.
Although the former All-Star shooting has denied the rumors on a cryptic post on his Instagram page, the trade rumors exist, and they are coming from multiple sources. An important side note to rumors and denials like these is that we don’t know exactly what DeRozan is denying. While it may seem like he’s refuting the idea he wants a trade, the rumors suggest that he wants out because he’s unhappy. And the post DeRozan shared could easily be interpreted to say that he denies being unhappy, but not that he wants a trade.
Related Story. Knicks: 3 outrageous trade packages for Westbrook. light
There’s also word that the Los Angeles Lakers may be interested in trading for DeRozan’s services, per Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer.
Still, even if he is perfectly content in San Antonio, now might be a good time to consider trading DeRozan. The Spurs are going to go into a rebuilding period after missing the playoffs for the first time since 1997, and there are three things every rebuilding team needs: youth, money, and draft picks. Unfortunately, DeRozan is currently standing in the way of all three of those for the Spurs.
With his veteran status, DeRozan might be a good player to mentor a young core of future stars, but San Antonio needs to build those stars before they can get there. His $27.7 million contract this season, should he choose to not exercise his player option, would be a big hit in the Spurs cap space this summer, and despite all of this, DeRozan is just good enough on his own to keep the Spurs in the running until late in the season. Because of that, San Antonio would be forever caught in NBA team purgatory: not good enough to make the playoffs, but too good for a high lottery pick. It’s the worst position for a rebuilding team to be in.
As a result, it may be worth it for San Antonio to survey the NBA trade landscape and see if there are any just-right deals to help push the Spurs into their next era of dominance.