Seven players the San Antonio Spurs gave up on too soon

5. Dejounte Murray

The jury is still out on this one but there's a possibility that we're going to look back on the Dejounte Murray trade as one of the bigger mistakes that the Spurs have made.

I should preface this by saying that I think that trading Dejounte was the right move to make. The Spurs got an absolute haul for their homegrown All-Star and if those first-round picks in 2025, 2026, and 2027 end up as high-end role players and borderline All-Stars then we can all kick our feet up and applaud the Spurs front office on another job well done. But we have to be honest about how this could play out.

The Spurs have found great players in the first round. They've also drafted guys like Luka Samanic, Nikola Milutinov, and Livio Jean-Charles. If those Hawks picks turn into players of that caliber then the Spurs should rightly look at this as a horrible deal.

Acquiring picks wasn't the only point of this trade. Moving on from Dejounte also gave other players room to shine and helped put San Antonio into firm contention for Victor Wembanyama. But landing Wemby isn't a certainty. The Spurs have a 27 percent chance at a top-two pick. They're far more likely to leave the draft with someone like Amen Thompson than with Wembanyama.

If San Antonio comes out of this trade with a generational talent like Wembanyama and three solid players from the Atlanta picks, then this will be a home run trade. But if they get a mid-lottery pick and three first-round busts, then we should all look back at this trade as one of the worst San Antonio has ever made.