Four trade deadline moves that would benefit Spurs, and two they must avoid.
The San Antonio Spurs’ 2023-24 season has not been without its challenges. After taking the first overall pick in last year’s draft and selecting Victor Wembanyama, one of the most talented prospects in many years, all the stars appeared to be aligned for this team once more.
Many people were so impressed by Victor’s individual brilliance that they expected he would be able to pull this club out of the muck and make them a playoff contender again from the start. But, as we’ve shown, this is far from the truth. There is still much work to be done in San Antonio before this club regains its old greatness.
This season, the Spurs have faced some serious challenges, and as a result, they are currently in last place in the Western Conference. While there is no reason to expect a Cinderella run to the playoffs this season, San Antonio must continue to improve in order to compete in the future.
To do so, they will most likely be keeping an eye out as the trade deadline approaches. There are a few actions they can make that will surely give them an advantage, while others, while appealing, should be ignored.
The Spurs’ most talked-about concern this season has been point guard play. To begin the year, Head Coach Gregg Popovich appointed Jeremy Sochan as the team’s floor general, an experimental decision that turned out to make less sense in practice than in theory.
Sochan, a good player who can make better passes than many people would expect given his size, but still not a genuine point guard in the league. The failure of the “point Sochan” experiment highlighted the Spurs’ glaring weakness at that position.
Tre Jones has been an improvement over Sochan as a distributor, but he is probably best suited as a backup. The Spurs do not need to find a long-term point guard answer at the deadline, but adding more skill to the position would improve the team’s potential.
