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I mean, you just got to love the trade rumors that the Spurs continue to be flung into as now Lauri Markkanen, we've heard the name before, and we now are hearing it again in a trade proposal, but this time not trading Devin Vassell, not trading just Jeremy Sozan, but trading De'Aaron Fox to the Utah Jazz in a trade that doesn't really make sense for the long-term future of the San Antonio Spurs but also i have some understanding we're going to discuss it right here on Spurs Digest with your host Keenan Warner and if you guys haven't yet make sure you guys take a spur of the moment to get every spurs moment by hitting that free subscribe button so you don't miss all the great content we have coming for you but let's get into it real quick spurs trade pitch moves De'Aaron Fox for 195 million dollar forward that's a lot of money. De'Aaron Fox's do a lot of money too and obviously in today's NBA we just saw Shea, J-Dub and Chet Holmgren get 240 plus so the league's now going to be it's going to be a highly financial league. Victor Wembanyama in the San Antonio Spurs is a future face of the NBA and it's tough to deny that however at some point Wemby will have to do some winning despite the losing not being on him the Spurs have done an excellent job assembling a strong young team around him but they still need to add more we've got if the Spurs want to compete as early as 25-26 this coming up this coming NBA season it might require them to go and make another move on the flip side one could argue that it wouldn't be wise for the Spurs to do as such, the Spurs have a great young core and if Wemby is going to face be the face of this franchise for the next two decades they'll be in good position to compete for a very long time that is a hundred percent, they have the opportunity to make a move in the Spurs I think they could be one of the teams that actually make a deadline kind of move they have a lot of young talent that they have accrued a lot via the draft, obviously the De'Aaron Fox trade last year and then you've had people progress within your roster and obviously trading for picks and such, although draft ball lottery falling your way, you have the ability to wait and just see what's going to be there and what your team looks like in December, in January, going into February, and going into that trade deadline. Because if you're looking like a team that has an outside chance at a three or a two seed, but you are missing one wing piece away, maybe you package Vassell and Keldon Johnson in a pick, and you're able to go move up for that Or if you see how the team's playing now, and you're like, okay, this team does need a year, maybe you trade Vassell and Sohan and you go get yourself future draft capital and maybe a future asset, and then let Carter, Bryan, and Dylan Harper really start to take the reign with more minutes depending on what you see. Or maybe we see how the team works perfectly, and we're like okay, let's just roll with it. But here is what the trade would be. It would be Lowry marketing. Don't disregard the Hawks part They're really just in there to make it work contractually What it really is is Lowry marketing, Keontae George, the 2027 first-round pick via L.A. from Utah, top four protected. So top four protected first-round pick I believe that would be via Utah, which would be a good pick to the Spurs And then to the Jazz, we would be sending De'Aaron Fox, Jeremy Sohan the 2027 first-round Atlanta pick, which is fine now So we understand that that Atlanta pick as it was a really highly touted pick a couple years back, it's now the more and more the Hawks are making moves in the Eastern Conference. it's a little weaker, that 2027 pick doesn't look as good as that 2029 Spurs unprotected, we should be really good in that season and 2029 second round pick via Atlanta as well, so to get into these players let's just talk about these players for a moment, obviously you've got De'Aaron Fox would be the guy that we'd be getting rid of 23 and a half point 4.8 rebounds 6.3 assists and the thing with De'Aaron Fox is obviously we didn't trade for De'Aaron Fox to move him within a year but we also didn't expect to have the number two pick and you can't operate like you're going to get the number two pick when we traded for De'Aaron Fox that day we all thought to ourselves if we're healthy we should be in the play-in at least if not going to the playoffs that season not even to the next one just that season and obviously Wemby has the condition and then you have De'Aaron Fox with the finger then you just have that and you just basically table that season and say hey let's get Stephon Castle rookie of the year and let's go from there and then all of a sudden you get the second pick in the draft and you have Dylan Harbaugh who lands in your lap and you're like okay now things have got to change and the thought of De'Aaron Fox getting traded is a possibility they haven't extended him for his long-term contract yet and I think that is somewhat in due part because of the fact that they got that second pick in the draft you go over to Lauri Markkanen, a guy who's 19.6 rebounds a game, who can shoot it from about 34, 35% from three. He is a true stretch for, and that three-point shooting percentage doesn't even do justice of how good of a shooter he is. He is truly a really good shooter and someone who could add a lot offensively to the San Antonio Spurs. But the thing about the Spurs is we just got Kelly Olynyk, and obviously it's Kelly Olynyk, a much lesser version of Lauri Markkanen. He is, but at the same time, we did just get him and we got Luke Cornett. You could trade it in because we are guard heavy and we do have a good guard depth and you'd be basically having him sub in for where the Jeremy Sochan place was. But, but, let's get a little bit more into this. Markkanen was one of the most desirable players in 23-24 season. Due to the fact he was 23 points, 8 rebounds on 63% true shooting, 40 percent from three on eight attempts and 41 percent on catch and shoot threes during that season he was something special this is what the pay is going to be looking like for Markkanen though you see obviously that's why you got to give up Fox too is because Fox is going to be do a contract that's going to look similar to this but 46 46 49 53 now you're getting into Stephon Castle's second contract you're you're already into Wemby's rookie extension with this deal so that's another thing that they've got to worry about obviously the cap's going to be going up every single year so you're going to have more money to and more room to play with but at the same time a contract like that especially towards the back half when he might have a little bit of return on the diminished return on investment when 20 21 and 28 28 29 with the fact now that he is 28 now so in four years 32 33 is he going to be the same exact player he is today he could be We know plenty of players are 32, 33. That's Anthony Davis is around that age. But he also could be a lesser version of himself going into that. But here's the real question. Would the Spurs actually part with Fox so soon? While Lauri Markkanen was an excellent piece for the San Antonio Spurs, it would be tough to justify that in some sense. Sure, the Spurs are somewhat heavy on guards after selecting Dylan Harper, but Fox is an incredible player, brings exactly what the team needs next to Wembanyama, A guy who can get downhill, get to the basket, create off the pick and roll, but also can hit a jump shot from the outside. A clutch player, won the clutch player cup a few years back. But the Spurs finished 20th in the three-point percentage and struggled to find floor spacing to complement Wemby. Swapping Fox for Markkanen would fit better to their roster and he'd be an instant starter at power forward, which improves the depth because they can bring Barnes off the bench, they added and so overall the outlook with this trade in 25-26 regarding the Spurs might next season some have suggested that it'd be a very good team this includes ESPN which recently noted they traded Brandon Wesley for Olenek the subtext here for the San Antonio Spurs is pretty much this they're getting serious about winning in 2025-2026 that meant no more room for developing Brandon Wesley for the picks in 2022 and that's what the Spurs are showing they're showing how they really want to get into the playoff conversation next year they have a team that can do that now does this Lauri Markkanen move maybe work now yes but I also think it's a premature move on something that we don't need to do we don't have to push the envelope we have everything that we need to at least go see and evaluate the talent on what we have let's see how good Dylan Harper is maybe by December mid-December we see how he's better than advertised and we're like oh wow this guy is competing for rookie of the year with Cooper Flagg even though he's playing off the bench this guy is showcase like we need to get him in the lineup now then you can entertain De'Aaron Fox trades then you can trade Devin Vassell trades you can entertain Keldon Johnson trades to try to get different pieces there to get more minutes or you see what carter bryant's doing and you see carter was like oh this guy is ready to go now okay so then we can entertain these trades of these all other veteran guys that we have on our roster who have been there for three four five six years or De'Aaron Fox who may have not been there for one year but is a veteran who is kind of now he's either a piece who is going to really be along for the ride or a piece that kind of is unnecessary but can get you a great return on some players and so the last part that I want to do this is what the depth chart looks like right now this is pretty this is what has been floating out uh right now for what the depth chart's going to be if you add Larry Markand into the roster they're also getting Keontae George Keontae George just for people who don't know a guy who put up 17 points four rebounds and six assists last year he was a 34% three-point shooter 39 from the field he is a solid guard so as a backup guard this guy can also get you a bucket too and help run a second unit which is another piece to that puzzle in that trade but your starting five would look like if you traded Fox today dear uh Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Larry Markand, and Victor Wembanyama off the bench you have George, Champagnie, Johnson, Barnes, and Luke Cornett with Kelly Olynyk, Carter Bryant, and McLaughlin right there and you might have uh Jones Garcia coming in there because the way he has played he deserves a spot maybe not on this roster but on another roster if he doesn't make this one but overall as it as I get what that is saying and I get the proposal there is no need to go push for Lowry Markkinen right now we don't need to make another move for the remainder of the year we just need to watch these guys develop starting with Dylan Harper here in about 18 hours when we're going to see him play against Cooper Flagg and we couldn't be more excited for that hopefully he is playing I know that he is up in the air still with the groin but if he is playing against them we need to wait for him for Carter Bryant and when we see how Stephon Castle looks in year two how Wemby looks in year three how Jeremy Sohan's looking nearing the end of his rookie deal and we go from there can Devin Vassell get back to that defensive prowess that we thought he was going to have coming off of that little foot injury that started the season rough and he started to end the season a better but we'll see and we can evaluate this team this first portion of the season for 25 30 games will be how good are these rookies and how good can this team really be on the season that middle 20 games will be what do we need to do to maximize this season or better the chances for next season and then that last 30 or 40 games is going to be playoff push. How high can we really climb up or what is it going to be looking like? What do the Spurs need to do moving forward? But let me know what you guys think what the Spurs might need to do moving forward. Would trading De'Aaron Fox be a move and do you like Lauri Markkanen coming in for that or do you think we should just stay in Pat wait until we have a future until we have more insight on what we should do with our future. But this has been Spurs Digest with your host Keenan Warner. I appreciate all of you guys, and I'll be seeing you guys very soon.