Grading Zach Collins’ sizeable contract extension with the Spurs

Grading Collins’ extension from Spurs’ perspective

From the Spurs’ perspective, paying a starting center, albeit a lower-end starting center, $17.5 million a season is better than it may initially look. Collins will only make $7.7 million in the last year of his contract, low by even backup standards and he has clearly proven that he is indeed a starter lever center.

Thus, to keep him from cashing in next summer, the Spurs offered him slightly more than the going rate for an average starting five. Even then, by the time his extension kicks in during the 2024–25 season, the cap will have jumped to $142 million. He’d make just 12.3% of the cap then and even less in 2025–26 when it reaches $149 million.

Paying a starter a miniscule percentage of the cap is a win for the Spurs and it’s obvious why they signed him to a two-year extension. Wembanyama will be entering year four by the time Collins can become a free agent and that could be their target for when they hope he’ll be ready to scale up to center.

The Spurs use a lesser-known CBA loophole to lock up a top prospect

The Spurs recently re-signed a key part of their young core and used a little-known CBA loophole to extend their second-best player to a steal of a deal.

In that case, Jeremy Sochan would likely replace Wemby at power forward. Thus, Collins will probably serve as the stop-gap center until then and he’ll continue to thrive in that role. A