San Antonio Spurs: Athletic predicts a deadline trade

The NBA trade deadline will be on February 10th, and you can expect the San Antonio Spurs to be involved in trade talks right up to that day. Uncharacteristically, the Spurs were involved in three separate trades in August, acquiring picks along with Doug McDermott, Thaddeus Young, and Al-Farouq Aminu.

With the assets they've acquired, many believe another trade will still take place with the Silver and Black before trade season is over. In Monday's season preview (subscription required) for The Athletic, Zach Harper offered a "random prediction" for every team, bringing up a potential trade in his assessment of the Spurs.

Saying San Antonio will "fully embrace the pursuit of lottery balls," Harper believes Aminu and Young could be shipped off to a contender for future assets.

The idea isn't farfetched at all, as Aminu's contract is a perfect trading chip to match salaries with another team while Young has been coveted by teams like the Phoenix Suns all summer. As of Monday morning, the Spurs still have to waive a player or trade someone to meet the league maximum of 15 players under contract by the end of the day.

While we've made the argument for why Young could thrive on this roster, there's still a lot to be said for acquiring picks in the middle of a rebuild. I'm of the mindset that the Spurs would be perfectly fine without his services if they're able to get something decent in return. As some teams start hitting rough patches or underperforming, they could start to look to San Antonio for that missing piece.

*Update: On Monday afternoon, Shams Charania announced the Spurs waived Al-Farouq Aminu. Given his extremely limited time in the NBA preseason, it wasn't a surprise. The roster now sits at 15, which is the maximum allowed by the NBA, so it appears Young is staying in San Antonio for the time being.

As the season begins, look for the Spurs to continue to be in the middle of trade rumors all throughout February.