San Antonio Spurs: 3 Trades to split up Spurs and LaMarcus Aldridge

Jan 22, 2021; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs center LaMarcus Aldridge (12) shoots in the first half against the Dallas Mavericks at the AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-USA TODAY Sports

The San Antonio Spurs will soon be parting ways with their star big man

It isn’t often that the San Antonio Spurs make headlines. The most low-key franchise in the NBA, the Spurs are notoriously tight-lipped and rarely make in-season trades. Both of these factors combined to make their recent announcement quite a surprise for Spurs fans.

Before the Spurs and Mavericks tipped off on Wednesday night, Gregg Popovich surprised Spurs fans by announcing that the team would be parting ways with LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge joined the Spurs in the summer of 2015 as the biggest free-agent signing in franchise history but his time in San Antonio has come to an end.

The rise of Jakob Poeltl as one of the best defensive big men in the NBA and the desire to free up more minutes for the up-and-coming Luka Samanic could have both played a part in the organization’s decision to part ways with Aldridge. In any case, the Spurs will use the time between now and the trade deadline on March 25th to find a new home for Aldridge.

Aldridge isn’t the player he once was and consequently, the Spurs shouldn’t expect to get too much in return. This move is all about trying to find the middle ground between sending Aldridge to a competitive team while still bringing back some combination of picks and/or players that the Spurs can use to further their rebuild. Here are a few options for what that could look like.

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