3 Burning questions Spurs fans want answered at Training Camp

3. What is the league-wide interest level on the veterans?

This here is the topic most discussed in articles about the Spurs in the past week or so. As mentioned at the beginning of this piece, the team is slated to lose a lot of games. Teams to whom that applies (“tanking” teams) tend to send their veterans away in trades, both to bring in draft capital and allow their young guys to see as many touches as possible. The first domino fell for the Spurs when they traded Dejounte Murray to Atlanta; other moves may be coming shortly.

In Josh Paredes’ article linked above, he talks about the two most mentioned veterans in trade negotiations so far— Josh Richardson and Jakob Poeltl. The team seems to be asking for at least one first round pick for Richardson and two for Jak.

Doug McDermott, the third veteran on the team, was not mentioned in the Air Alamo piece but was discussed in LJ Ellis’ article from which Paredes references. Ellis tells that there is not a ton of interest in McDermott, as his contract (two years, $27.5 million remaining) weighs down his value.

Neither piece talks much about what the return could be for the two veterans with positive trade value. We heard what the team is asking for but were not informed as to how the rest of the league values these guys. The Spurs are historically conservative in trades and try to extract what they feel is the best return when making moves.

As Matthew Tynan—another Spurs insider—mentions here, because Jakob adds a lot to the team (so does Richardson, for that matter), it makes more sense to wait on that return than it does to pounce on the first offer. It'll be an interesting situation to monitor.