San Antonio Spurs: Buy or sell on every pending free agent

With the San Antonio Spurs missing the playoffs for the first time this century, it is time to see if they should buy or sell on their free agents.

The San Antonio Spurs missed the playoffs for the first time this century. In fact, they missed them for the first time since the 1996-97 season when Bob Hill was replaced with Gregg Popovich 18 games into the season.

As a result, they need to take a look at their roster and make a series of decisions that will take them from the 11th seed in the Western conference to being back in the playoffs. Given the competitive nature of the West, this could be a tough road back.

With the majority of the roster being under contract for next season, and with $120 million worth of salary on the books the Spurs need to be creative. They will need to make some trades to improve their prospects.

The available free agents for the San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs have four free agents this offseason. The first is DeMar DeRozan who decided to take up his $27.7 million player option. This is almost one-quarter of the committed salary on their books.

Being the final year of his contract their is a potential that the Spurs will try and trade DeRozan to a contender in return for a number of assets. He has been brilliant for the Spurs but if he wants to compete, they will want to get something back for him before the next free agency period.

This article will focus on the other three who are available. These players are Marco Belinelli, Jakob Poeltl, and Bryn Forbes. Let’s now take a look at whether the Spurs should buy or sell on these players.

Marco Belinelli

Marco Belinelli will forever be remembered as being an important member of the 2013-14 San Antonio Spurs championship team. This was Belinelli’s first year with the Spurs but his seventh in the league.

This was Belnelli’s best year in the league and he stayed for the full three years of his contract. Since he left the Spurs the first time Belinelli has struggled to find a home. He played for four teams in the next three years.

Then he returned to the Spurs in the 2018-19 season. He was solid for this season, still averaging 10.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. His shooting was good with splits of .413/.372/.903.

Then his production dropped off in the 2019-20 season, his minutes reducing to just 15.5 minutes per game. This was the lowest number since his rookie year. He averaged 6.3 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game. This was again the worst production since his first year.

The problem is that his shooting efficiency declined with his field goal percentage dropping to below 40 percent for the first time since his rookie campaign. His 3-point shooting was at his career level of 37.6 percent but he only took 2.4 attempts per game.

At the age of 34, Belinelli is not likely to get back to the levels of production which will help the Spurs back into the playoffs next season. This means that the Spurs should not re-sign Belinelli in free agency.

Verdict – Sell