4 Dream trade deadline targets for Spurs (and what they'd cost)

2. Nic Claxton

With many gaping holes in this young roster, the backup center position might be the most obvious. With Dominick Barlow shining in his short roster time during Zach Collins' recovery from a sprained ankle, it's well more than well known that San Antonio needs to be looking to move on from Collins, and Nic Claxton would be the perfect fit in the second unit.

Claxton has developed a strong reputation as a basket-to-basket center who controls both ends of the paint. While also thriving in the pick-and-role, being a consistent lob threat and a prominent center presence, which is missing from the Spurs bench unit.

Claxton will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, so San Antonio would trade for a rental, hoping to resign him to a long-term deal. With the Spurs having just over twenty million in expiring contracts, they are already projected to have 34.4 million dollars in cap space going into the 2024-25 season; plus the twenty million in expiring contracts, San Antonio will have 56.8 million to spend, which gives them leverage to trade for expiring contracts in hopes of signing them for long-term deals.

The Spurs would give up three picks, the first being protected in 2026 because, hopefully, San Antonio shouldn't be falling within that range of picks as Victor Wembanyama will have just completed his third season with the Spurs, and there should be at the very least a postseason appearance. Easier said, the Spurs should be out of the rebuilding phase, fingers crossed.

This trade fills the glaring gap at the backup center position and tremendously improves the interior presence on both ends of the floor. Collins has struggled to reciprocate his success as a versatile scorer and provide an interior presence on the floor. So this allows San Antonio to add proper interior size to the bench and go all-in to sign Claxton for a long-term extension this summer, adding to the promising young group.