The San Antonio Spurs should not give DeMar DeRozan a max contract

The San Antonio Spurs have reportedly not ruled out the possibility of giving DeMar DeRozan a max contract extension. That would not be a wise move for the future of this franchise.

DeMar DeRozan is preparing for his second season with the San Antonio Spurs after he came to Texas from Toronto in the Kawhi Leonard trade.

DeRozan had a solid but unspectacular first season with the Spurs averaging 21.2 points per game with 6.2 assists and 6 rebounds.

While his per-game averages looked pretty good, his efficiency numbers fell off a bit from his time with the Raptors as he had his lowest player efficiency rating (19.6) and true shooting percentage (54.2%) since the 2014-15 season.

He also continued to struggle on the defensive end of the floor ranking 52nd among 107 shooting guards in defensive real plus-minus.

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I’ve suggested that San Antonio should be looking to trade DeRozan this offseason, but Mike Finger of the San Antonio Express-News reported that “all indications are that the Spurs value his presence and want to keep him around.”

In fact, Finger went on to say that while the Spurs haven’t offered DeMar a max contract yet this offseason, “they have not ruled out the possibility of doing so before the season begins.”

While DeRozan is an All-Star caliber player when his famous midrange jumpers are falling, he just turned 30 years old and this max extension could be worth a ton of money considering DeMar is entering his 11th year of NBA service.

We’ve seen the ceiling that a team built around DeRozan has as one of their top players, and the Spurs should be shooting higher than that as they look towards the future.

San Antonio also has to worry about what their salary cap outlook will look like after potentially extending Dejounte Murray and Jakob Poltl this offseason with a Derrick White extension coming in the near future.

The Spurs should be looking to move on from the DeRozan and Aldridge era in the next couple of years to make room for their talented young core to run the show.

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Unless San Antonio is looking to extend DeRozan’s contract and then trade him, I think offering DeMar a max contract extension could set this franchise back a couple of years.