3 Spurs whose roles aren't safe after the trade deadline

There are not many guarantees when it comes to the San Antonio Spurs. Victor Wembanyama is the unquestioned future of this team with all the potential in the world. But aside from him, very few players have established themselves as true core pieces.

As of Monday morning, San Antonio has lost seven games in a row and continues sitting alone at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. For Head Coach Gregg Popovich and the coaching staff, all bets are off in terms of what adjustments will be made to get this group to play winning basketball.

Several Spurs players that have had a defined role to this point could find themselves replaced in short order. These are some of the most prominent players who could be replaced in the rotation for the final 29 games after the deadline.

Julian Champagnie

Serving as the Spurs' starting small forward for the majority of the season to this point, Julian Champagnie's production has been variable to put it kindly. He has scored in double figures 11 times in 2023-24, while also going scoreless in three contests where he played at least 19 minutes.

The second year wing has proven he has value, but what his role will look like in the long term remains to be seen. Oftentimes this season, Champagnie's inclusion in the starting lineup has been a play to bring Keldon Johnson off the bench to help bring some scoring power to the second unit.

With his variance in level of play, it is safe to say Champagnie does not have a concrete role with the Spurs moving forward. Looking down the bench, there are several players like Dominick Barlow waiting to take his minutes. Even the rookie Sidy Cissoko who has been playing primarily in the G League could be in play to replace Champagnie.

Malaki Branham

When he was drafted by the Spurs in the first round of the 2022 NBA draft, Malaki Branham joined the Spurs as a streaky scorer with the potential to provide some much-needed offensive punch once he got acclimated to the league. With Dejounte Murray leaving town just after his arrival, he looked to have even more potential opportunity than expected.

That opportunity would come to fruition in the form of Branham earning 23.5 minutes per game as a rookie in 2022-23. He put up solid numbers in his first professional season with 10.2 points and 1.9 assists, albeit on somewhat low efficiency. He had his frustrating moments as all rookies do, but the vision for him as a productive role player was there.

Fast forward to his sophomore season, and Branham has been struggling more than anticipated. He is putting up 2.4 points per game less than last season while shooting worse percentages from the three-point line and the field as a whole.

His playing time is similar enough to last season (-3.3 minutes) that a lack of opportunity can not really be argued as the reason for his dip in production. Going forward, several backcourt players could be candidates to usurp his minutes.

Zach Collins

When Zach Collins landed in San Antonio during summer 2021, the signing was a bit of a risk considering he was still sidelined after having surgery on his foot. The team signed him in free agency to a three-year deal not knowing if he would return looking anything like the player he was before missing extended time.

After coming back mid-season during 2021-22, Collins has slowly increased his level of play and now looks like the player many had envisioned he could be before his injuries. But in the last several weeks since returning from a turned ankle, he has been another guy that has struggled to build consistent production.

Since returning on January 19, Collins has been averaging just 8.0 points and 3.8 rebounds while shooting just 41 percent from the floor and an astonishing six percent from three-point range. Chalk it up to an extended slump stemming from coming back from an injury, but Collins has not looked like the player the Spurs need him to be recently.

Add to his falling numbers the fact that Collins is a fiery player that can tend to get himself into trouble, and it is not hard to see Gregg Popovich deciding to supplant his minutes going forward.