3 Spurs who likely won't make it to the regular-season opener

The San Antonio Spurs are entering the doldrums of the offseason now that the 2023 NBA Draft, Las Vegas Summer League, and the opening weeks of free agency are in the rearview mirror. Though this dead period will give the players and coaches a well-deserved reprieve from pressers and basketball operations, the front office has a handful of decisions left on their to-do list.

With 20 contracts on the books and only 18 spots on the roster, the Silver and Black must send a pair of players packing before the beginning of next season. Gregg Popovich and company are a little less than three months from opening training camp, but it is never too soon to start thinking about making final cuts when the depth chart is packed with talent at almost every position.

1.) Khem Birch

Khem Birch is the first and most obvious candidate to get the boot from San Antonio this Summer, as he fails to align with their timeline or mesh with how the front office is constructing the roster. The 30-year-old center is a complete non-shooter, undersized for his position, and fell out of the rotation well before Toronto sent him to the Spurs in a trade deadline deal to reunite with Jakob Poeltl last season.

Though the Silver and Black are on the hook to pay Birch $6.9 million in guaranteed money during the upcoming season, the team can waive him and eat his salary without financial repercussions since he is entering the final year of his contract. Traditional big men without range or ball skills are on the brim of extinction in the league, and cutting ties with the veteran rim runner seems like an inevitable move.

2.) Cedi Osman

San Antonio acquired Cedi Osman in a three-team trade at the beginning of this month, so seeing his name on this list may be a little shocking. While the 27-year-old forward is fresh off the most efficient season of his career, his arrival could not have come at a worse time. Between Keldon Johnson, Doug McDermott, and Reggie Bullock, the Spurs have no room on their depth chart to provide him minutes.

Osman is also on an expiring contract, which means San Antonio has no reason to lose sleep over the monetary consequences of releasing him from their roster. The Spurs still have two months to dangle the Turkish marksman on the trade market before the regular season starts, but this is an unfortunate case of a rock-solid role player landing in a seemingly perfect destination at an inopportune juncture.

3.) Devonte' Graham

The Spurs officially re-signed Tre Jones and traded for Cameron Payne over the last week, and those crucial offseason transactions could signal the end of the line for Devonte' Graham. Though the sixth-year point guard earned consistent rotation minutes after San Antonio added him at the deadline last season, his future is less clear than ever, especially with the club invested in developing Blake Wesley.

Unlike Birch and Osman, the 28-year-old floor general still has two seasons remaining on his current deal. However, the final year of his contract is only partially guaranteed for $2.8 million, which means the front office has the flexibility to release Graham this offseason without suffering a significant cap hit that restricts how much money they can spend pursuing big names in free agency next summer.