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

Teams only have until Thursday, February 8th, to shape up rosters for late post-season pushes or completely blow it up and go into rebuild mode. San Antonio sits at the bottom of the Western Conference at 10-40 with only 32 games to go in the regular season.

While the Spurs may be the lowest of the low in the Western Conference, this is an entirely different scenario compared to any other team in this position. San Antonio is looking to buy high on talent to pair next to Victor Wembanyama and this young roster in hopes of restoring their glory days.

In the last two years, we've seen general manager Brian Wright do his best recreation of the Oklahoma City strategy and acquire as much draft stock as possible to build through the draft or use valuable picks they've gained to make blockbuster moves. While we're still waiting to see one of those occur, San Antonio is in the perfect position to land great role players or even a disgruntled superstar looking to get a fresh start.

With the picks and draft capital the Spurs own, plenty of players have been made available, and Brian Wright could pick up the phone and make a deal.

4. Matisse Thybulle

San Antonio has a true needle in the haystack regarding the need for more depth at the wing position. Still, to add the cherry on top, the defensive liabilities at that position are clear as day and in desperate need of an upgrade. While Keldon Johnson has looked comfortable in his new role as a spark plug off the bench, the Spurs still need to add depth to this position, and Matisse Thybulle is the perfect fit.

The Spurs are not acquiring Thybulle for his offense, as they have guys who can score. They're trading for his defense. While Johnson's build is above average and decent size, he can't go toe-toe with some of the elite wings in the game like Kawhi Leonard or LeBron James. The only player on the roster who can think about those matchups is a second-year forward, Jeremy Sochan.

Not only does Keldon struggle against those who are bigger in size and versatility, but he also struggles as a one-on-one isolation defender, and teams hunt out for that matchup when looking to get points on an iso. Any explosive ball carrier can take advantage of Johnson's liability and create a play.

Landing Thybulle would allow for those days to be long gone. Keldon's best fit is still off the bench as the explosive around-the-rim shot creator. Still, this move allows for the Spurs to add proven defensive wing depth, upgrading over Julian Champagnie in the starting lineup to form a nightmare front-court trio of Thybulle, Sochan, and Wembanyama. While keeping Johnson a role, he's acclimated well to.

In this hypothetical, San Antonio gives up Doug McDermott, who's on an expiring contract, and Chicago's 2025 first-round pick protected within the top ten. Portland can keep McDermott for shooting and veteran leadership or ship him to a contender. While also betting highly on potentially getting Chicago's pick, however, if they choose to blow it up in the off-season, that pick would most likely stay with the Bulls.

3. Tyus Jones

With the Wizards making Tyus Jones available for trade, this is a player that San Antonio should've jumped on from the moment he was put on the block. He's second in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio and is currently averaging 6.3 assists on the year. The older of the Jones brothers is only 27 and is being made available for multiple second-round picks.

While Jones has been made available, the Wizards won't be willing to let him go easily, as they have declined an offer of four second-round picks from the Minnesota Timberwolves. San Antonio currently holds 19 second-round picks, with six of them being their own and the rest coming from several other teams. This means the rest of the picks will translate regardless of where they end up.

At the last trade deadline, the Spurs acquired Devonte Graham and four second-round picks for Josh Richardson. To get Tyus in the silver and black, the Spurs sent away the exact offer they received to bring in Jones. Who will mentor his younger brother Tre and provide true facilitation and a much more consistent long-range shooter as he's letting it fly from three and is averaging a career-high three-point percentage of 39.2%

Not only is this an upgrade to add a new starting point guard to the roster, but it also pushes Tre Jones back to the bench, allowing Jones and Keldon Johnson to staff the second unit and providing substantial depth, which desperately needs to be upgraded.

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.

1. Trae Young

This is the best-case scenario for San Antonio. This move must be made if they want to go all-in on their future. Trading for the 25-year-old superstar, who has already openly stated that he'd love to team up with Wembanyama, would form a tandem that could be on the Jokic and Murray type of elite.

Why would Atlanta give up the core piece of their franchise? Well, when the Spurs shipped off former All-Star point guard Dejounte Murray to Atlanta back in the 2022 offseason, the Hawks gave up a HAUL of draft picks, including the rights to their first-round picks in 2025, 2026 and 2027, with 2025 and 27 being unprotected, and the swap rights to Atlanta's first-rounder in 2026 which means if the Hawks get a higher pick in that draft, San Antonio can swap picks to move up.

In other words, San Antonio pretty much owns Atlanta's entire future, and with the Hawks struggling to build consistency of winning and now putting almost their entire roster up for trade, it seems that Atlanta might be looking to restart if they can't find postseason success.

Do you know when you get a good hand in poker and shove all your chips into the middle? This is that good hand for San Antonio. This is Brian Wright is buying all-in to the future dynamic duo of dominance in Trae Young and Victor Wembanyama.

Getting the point guard of the future could not be more crucial then paring him next to the generational talent in Wemby, and let's not forget the Spurs already have 40 losses on the season, and with 32 games left, there most likely wouldn't be enough time for the Spurs to make a late postseason push. This means their own first-round pick will likely hit the lottery, allowing them to replace Johnson in a very wing-heavy class.

With just under 72 hours till the deadline, we'll see how the Spurs choose to play their cards.