Seven trades that came back to haunt the San Antonio Spurs

3. Spurs trade Davis Bertans in 3-team trade, receive DeMarre Carroll from Nets (2019)

As the most recent trade on this list, this one still stings. In July 2019, Marcus Morris verbally committed to the San Antonio Spurs on a two-year, $20 million contract. The only problem? The Spurs needed to create cap space for the signing. With limited options, they opted to trade away their best 3-point shooter in Davis Bertans for virtually nothing.

The 6-10 forward was coming off a season in which he shot a scorching 42.9 percent from downtown. If not for Morris, there’s no doubt there was mutual interest in getting a deal done between both sides.

Instead, Morris famously backed out of his verbal commitment to San Antonio, choosing to go to a team that hadn’t made the playoffs since 2013 in the New York Knicks. The result was the Spurs trading Bertans to the Washington Wizards for DeMarre Carroll, who was used sparingly throughout the season.

Davis had a career year with the Wizards, scoring 15.4 points per game despite starting only four times last season. While he had some defensive issues, his size and outside shooting were sorely missed on a Spurs team that had too many offensive droughts all year.

Much like the Kawhi Leonard trade, the Spurs didn’t have much of a choice but to make a deal when you consider the circumstances. Nonetheless, this one definitely still haunts them.

Next: No. 2