5 worst San Antonio Spurs moves of the Brian Wright era

San Antonio Spurs GM Brian Wright has been in his position for five years now and has built the team's current roster. Although the Spurs have a lot of promise, his work as GM has been questioned by fans, some of whom don't believe that he has done a good job. 

While he has made plenty of good moves, several head-scratching decisions give his critics ammunition. So, we will take a look at the five worst moves of the Wright era, starting with a questionable contract extension.

5) The Zach Collins extension

In one of his more recent moves, Wright's decision to give Zach Collins an extension looks to be a bad move so far. At the time, Collins was a starter and his two-year $35 million seemed about right for a starting center. Despite that, he didn't play well in the starting lineup and was demoted to the bench, where he is now an overpaid backup to Wembanyama.

Many didn't expect Wembanyama to be ready to play center but in the 52 games he played at center last season, he averaged an impressive 22.4 points, 11 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 3.9 blocks. That makes Wright's calculation of Collins' value to the team incorrect, with him not being crucial to Wembanyama's development but instead proving to be more of a hindrance.

Collins playing better off the bench and being productive as a fill-in starter would go a long way toward rehabbing his value. The rising cap will also take some of the sting out of his contract, and his big expiring contract in 2025-26 could be very valuable. There are ways in which Collins' deal won't look nearly as bad as it does now but it will largely depend on his play and what the Spurs can do with it going forward.

4) Not trading the veterans for picks in 2019

Before Wright began to trade with regularity, he confoundingly opted against trading his veterans when they still had value. In 2019-2020, the Spurs had DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay, and Patty Mills on expiring contracts and LaMarcus Aldridge on a team option for the following season.

At the time, it was clear that the Spurs wouldn't make the playoffs. Instead of having a fire sale, he opted to let Mills and Gay walk in free agency instead of trading them to a contender for second-rounders.

To play devil's advocate, they were nearing the end of their good years. Nevertheless, they still had some value, and playoff teams have been known to throw seconds around, i.e., the Pelicans trading four seconds for Josh Richardson only to let him leave in free agency months later.

Wright did get great value in a sign and trade for DeRozan but decided against dealing Aldridge, who averaged 18.9 points and 7.4 rebounds and had begun to shoot well from three. Wright then picked up his big team option only to later waive Aldridge after he lost his spot to Jakob Poeltl. In short, he left several picks on the table and got no value from Mills, Gay, and Aldridge when he probably could have.

To his credit, he has since done an excellent job of trading veterans while they still have value for picks, but that was a major missed opportunity.

3) The Marcus Morris debacle

The Marcus Morris debacle wasn't entirely Wright's fault, with Morris playing a big role. Then again, Morris has always displayed questionable decision-making and seemed to go against the type of players the Spurs normally target and it came back to bite them.

The Spurs infamously acquired DeMarre Carroll from the Brooklyn Nets in a sign-and-trade and also gave up Davis Bertans in the 3-team deal to the Washington Wizards. That paved the way for San Antonio to sign Morris with their mid-level exception.

Unfortunately, those moves all failed to work out. Bertans had a breakout season in a bigger role in Washington and Carroll barely played after failing to fit in and was waived. Lastly, Morris, of course, backed out of the signing and later signed with the New York Knicks. Had the deal worked out for the Spurs, they would have bolstered their defense around DeRozan and Aldridge and also added shooting.

That didn't happen and the team failed to make the playoffs for the first time in more than 20 seasons. It was the right idea for Wright to try and add more shooting and defense but the players they targeted didn't work out.

2) The return value from the Kawhi Leonard trade

Although this technically falls under the RC Buford era, Wright is credited with helping to negotiate the parameters of the Kawhi Leonard trade as the assistant GM. As a result, he'll get some of the blame for the bone-headed decision to include Danny Green in the deal instead of Pau Gasol. Wright traded Leonard and Green to the Raptors in exchange for Jakob Poeltl, DeMar DeRozan, and the first-round pick that became Keldon Johnson.

Trading Green hurt the team's ability to build around DeRozan and Aldrige. The Spurs planned on pairing them with Dejounte Murray in hopes of staying competitive, but their lack of perimeter defense hurt them. They could have trotted out a balanced lineup of Murray, DeRozan, Green, Rudy Gay, and Aldridge but instead moved DeRozan to the three and started Bryn Forbes, who was a defensive turnstile.

Even when Murray went down, they were able to replace him with Derrick White, but the Spurs still struggled on that end. That led to some comedic lineups, including them starting a three-and-d forward in Dante Cunningham, who wasn't a particularly good defender and rarely took threes outside of garbage time.

They also paired Aldridge and Poeltl with DeRozan before Aldridge began shooting threes, improving the defense at the expense of the offense. All of that could have been avoided had they not traded Green. He would have helped the Spurs by giving them another perimeter defender to help cover DeRozan's flaws and maximize his strengths. Instead, the Spurs gave him away and he helped the Raptors win a championship.

1) Drafting Joshua Primo

The Spurs have historically drafted very well but that hasn't been the case as much under Wright. The jury is still out on Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley, though time is running out for them to pan out.

However, Wrights' decision to draft former Spurs guard Joshua Primo 12th overall in 2021 was a wild gamble; that might have paid off had it not been for his off-the-court issues. However, it was still a baffling move. After all, the Spurs needed a big man and they passed on a clearly talented one in Alperen Sengun, who has only gotten better.

Meanwhile, San Antonio literally wasted a lottery pick. While that worked out in the sense that they landed Wembanyama, getting nothing out of a big asset is inexcusable. Had he worked out, the Spurs might have had a long-term answer at point guard.

Instead, San Antonio was forced to rely on Tre Jones to hold down the fort and now 38-year-old Chris Paul as a stopgap option. 3 years later, they still don't have a long-term plan at point guard, though Stephon Castle may turn out to be him.

Ultimately, Wright had the right idea of swinging for the fences with the 12th pick considering very few players drafted there go on to become more than borderline starters. Then again, he reached for Primo instead of taking a more surefire prospect in Sengun and that proved to be a huge mistake.