San Antonio Spurs News: More DeRozan trade talk from Chris Haynes

I don’t know who is behind the scenes pulling the strings on national media coverage but they must be trying to set a new record for mentions of the San Antonio Spurs in a week. For a team that hardly ever gets noticed, the Spurs have been a fixture in trade rumors over the past few weeks.

It started with the news from The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor that the Spurs were interested in trading for Nikola Vucevic. Then Gregg Popovich surprised us all when he announced that the team and LaMarcus Aldridge would be parting ways and trades were being explored. Thrown into the mix have been more rumblings that the Miami Heat are interested in Rudy Gay.

The only Spurs star who wasn’t being talked about in trades was DeMar DeRozan. But that’s starting to change.

San Antonio Spurs could trade DeRozan if extension isn’t agreed to

In a recap of trade talk from around the league, Yahoo’s Chris Haynes touched briefly on the situation between DeRozan and the Spurs. He made it clear that the Spurs have not been looking to trade their star but also hinted that could change if they can’t come to terms on a contract extension between now and the March 25th trade deadline.

Haynes didn’t go as far to say that he thinks a trade is imminent but was sure to point out that there haven’t been any talks on an extension.

Normally I’d dismiss something like this outright but coming from Haynes this report carries a bit more weight. He’s been tapped in on what’s been happening between DeRozan’s camp and the Spurs for a while now and has had sources in San Antonio for years. I don’t think he’d be including this nugget into his broader recap if there hadn’t been some new development.

I still don’t think the Spurs are going to trade DeRozan. He’s been outstanding this year and is a huge part of their success. Without him they’d still be a tough team to face but they wouldn’t be in the playoffs.

But, as Haynes said, if the Spurs don’t extend DeRozan they’re walking into the summer faced with the possibility of losing him for nothing. Is that a risk they’re willing to take? I’d bet it is.

LaMarcus Aldridge isn’t going to be with the team much longer and who knows about Rudy Gay but I don’t think DeRozan is going anywhere before the trade deadline. The Spurs would be smart to hold onto him and figure things out this summer.