The Spurs were smart to choose continuity to round out their roster
Sandro Mamukelashvili’s and Charles Bassey’s return will help keep the chemistry and camaraderie of last year’s team intact.
The Spurs filled their last two available roster spots with two familiar faces. Sandro Mamukelashvili and Charles Bassey will return to San Antonio on one-year minimum deals to offer depth at the big forward and center spots.
It’s not surprising to see the two back, but it didn’t seem predestined, either. The Spurs had to renounce their rights to Mamu, who they had made a restricted free agent earlier in the offseason, and waive Bassey, who was on a non-guaranteed contract to get access to their cap space to ink Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes. Mamukelashvili was a fan favorite thanks to his personality, effort and on-court chemistry with Victor Wembanyama, but with the arrival of Harrison Barnes to take the forward minutes that were unclaimed after the exits of Doug McDermott and Cedi Osman, he could have been pushed out. Bassey suffered a season-ending injury last year and couldn’t really prove his worth despite showing flashes of valuable two-way potential. With the front office having the room exception at their disposal, they could have looked elsewhere.
They didn’t, which probably has to do with a bare market but also with the belief that continuity is important and retaining helpful players who have proved to be a fit with the Spurs’ culture is more sensible at this stage than looking for marginal improvements in talent that might not pan out. The Silver and Black had a rough 2023/24 season, but the mood of the team never got nasty. There was no finger-pointing and while there was obvious frustration with all the losing, the locker room seemed largely at peace. Bassey and Mamukelashvili contributed to that harmony, with Mamu in particular doing a great job of staying ready instead of sulking about a lack of playing time and making the most of his opportunity when it arrived.
Overvaluing continuity can backfire if it means bringing back players who clearly can’t contribute, but, for all their limitations, Mamu and Bassey showed enough progress in San Antonio to deserve a closer look. When he was healthy and given minutes, Bassey was a workhorse on the boards, a great finisher inside and an improving defender who was learning more about positioning and discipline. If his explosiveness is still there and he has continued to study the game, he could turn into a solid backup center. As for Mamu, he had some tough moments earlier in the year but came alive late in the season when the injuries piled up for the Spurs. He averaged 11 points, 10 rebounds and two assists in the last eight games while shooting 37 percent on three-pointers and fitting well next to Wembanyama. As far as rounding out a roster, a team could do worse than those two.
The main counterpoint to the optimism about the return of Bassey and Mamu is not hard to find. Neither player could get serious minutes on some awful teams and, while still young, neither seems to have a huge amount of untapped potential. There were certainly prospects available at eighth in the last draft that would have made for more exciting additions and maybe it would have made sense to take some chances on other free agents, considering we are likely talking about the third-string center and fifth forward. It’s a valid position to take since running it back in any way was the last thing the Spurs should have done and the difference between this year’s team and last year’s one is not huge in terms of names. The hope, however, is that by bringing in the right reinforcements, the pieces of a roster that made little sense will all fall into place.
The Spurs surely valued continuity more than some would have hoped for after a terrible season. They will have 12 returning players from a team that won just 22 games, which seems like too many. The front office could be accused of being too cautious and preoccupied with the future to focus on the now. There is room for criticism even about the moves they made to put the finishing touches on their roster.
Those criticisms will have to take into account that sometimes big change doesn’t require bombastic moves but a simple commitment to sticking with what works and a willingness to identify and fix what doesn’t. By making tactical additions to address specific issues while not compromising the chemistry and familiarity that was already in place, the Spurs could look like a completely different team despite having many familiar faces.
