Where the Spurs stand after the Harrison Barnes trade

San Antonio adds veteran talent, but has some cap navigation to do.

Coming into the 2024 offseason, the San Antonio Spurs were looking to add veteran talent that can shoot, pass and defend. On the first day of free agency, they signed Chris Paul to an $11 million, 1-year deal. Over the weekend, the Spurs made a trade to acquire a veteran swingman, Harrison Barnes, and a 2031 unprotected pick swap from the Sacramento Kings. In just two moves, San Antonio addressed holes in their roster and surrounded Victor Wembanyama and the rest of the young core with veteran leadership.

There is still plenty of work to be done to make these moves work financially. According to Spotrac, the Spurs are $26.5 million over the salary cap with the reported contracts of Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes ($19.8M). According to Paul Garcia, writer of The Spot Up Shot, San Antonio must renounce the cap holds of Cedi Osman and Dominick Barlow to open up $21.1 million in cap space, allowing them top absorb Barnes’ salary. They would then have $1.2 million in caps space to sign Paul, which in case you are bad at math like me, is not more than the $11 million contract he agreed to.

If the Spurs pull the qualifying offers from Sandro Mamukelashvili and David Duke Jr., while also waiving Julian Champagnie and Charles Bassey from their non-guaranteed contracts, they’ll open $10.2 million in cap space to sign Paul. In order to get to the $11 million number, San Antonio would likely need to move Blake Wesley or Malaki Branham without receiving any contracts in the potential deal.

Okay, that’s a lot to digest. To put it in simple terms, San Antonio needs to clear the books to make the Barnes and Paul deals work. Which means they’ll likely need to rescind offers to back of the rotation players and waive non-guaranteed deals. That doesn’t mean we won’t see Champagnie, Mamu and Bassey on the Spurs next season.

If the Spurs clear the cap space for their two new veterans, they’ll still have the $7.9 million mid-level exception they can use to sign a player while going over the salary cap. So San Antonio could waive Champagnie, who started 59 games and shot 36.5% from deep last season, and sign him using the mid-level exception. They can also use veteran minimum deals to fill out the roster while going over the cap. The Spurs will be able to use the second-round pick exception to sign Harrison Ingram to a deal as well.

If the Spurs clear cap space and sign Paul, Barnes and Ingram, they’ll have 13 players on the roster. An NBA roster can legally fit 15 players on the team, plus three two-way contract slots (currently filled by Jamaree Bouyea and RaiQuan Gray). With the mid-level exception and roster spots to fill, the Spurs still have moves to make this summer.

They can also still make a splashy trade. Because Barnes contract will be absorbed into the Spurs cap room, there are no restrictions on trading him. In other words, if San Antonio is still in on Utah Jazz forward, Lauri Markkanen, they can trade Barnes’ contract to the Jazz to match money. Insert eyeball emoji.

If Spurs general manager, Brian Wright isn’t able to work out a deal with the Jazz, Barnes will make for a key addition to the team. He and Paul will likely start right away, supplementing Wembanyama, Devin Vassell and Jeremy Sochan in the starting five. Tre Jones can comfortably move into a bench role where he will join Keldon Johnson and Zach Collins. It’s hard to imagine that the Spurs first-round pick, Stephon Castle, won’t play a role as well. With no additional moves, a clear (and competent) nine-man rotation has emerged for San Antonio. That bench unit could likely use another shooter with some size to guard bigger wings. Champagnie coming back on the mid-level could help fill that role, or the Spurs could look to external free agents to acquire another veteran.

Looking forward, the Spurs draft cache has only gotten larger this offseason. Wright simultaneously acquired two veterans who can boost the Spurs current chances at winning, while acquiring an unprotected first rounder and two unprotected pick swaps. All he had to give up was Devonte’ Graham, the eighth pick in the draft and a 2025 second round pick. The Spurs now have 13 first round picks and 3 pick swaps (including the best of three teams in 2031) in the next 6 drafts.

A lot has changed for San Antonio in the last few weeks. Still, there are more moves that can be made before the final roster takes shape. Bottom line, the Spurs got better this summer while maintaining the assets necessary to acquire top-level talent down the road.