Spurs get co-star for Victor Wembanyama in latest mock trade

With the NBA trade deadline coming up soon, potential trades and ideas for how to improve are being floated for basically every team in the association right now. When it comes to the San Antonio Spurs and their situation, the biggest point of emphasis has to be finding a co-star for Victor Wembanyama.

It is becoming clearer than ever that Wemby is the kind of generational star whose talent simply can not be wasted. If they are to have a chance at beginning another dynasty, the Spurs must focus on getting some high-level players around Victor that will help them get back in the postseason sooner rather than later.

Some fans are interested in making the whole roster besides Wembanyama available for trade, and perhaps that might be a bit premature, but San Antonio also has to keep in mind the importance of having a true championship-caliber second option. No one on this team has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they can be that to this point, so no one can truly be considered untouchable.

This week, Bleacher Report's Greg Swartz proposed an idea wherein the Spurs could obtain that kind of high-level player through a trade with the Kings. In his mock trade, Sacramento would send San Antonio De'Aaron Fox while the Spurs would package Keldon Johnson, Tre Jones and Malaki Branham along with three draft picks.

Spurs would finally get their championship-caliber second option

The draft picks involved here would be San Antonio's 2025 first-rounder (via Atlanta Hawks), their 2027 first-round pick (unprotected), and their 2029 first-rounder as well (also unprotected). This is a big haul to say the least, but it may just be worth it on the Spurs' end of things.

Think about it. When you have a surefire MVP-caliber player in Wembanyama, you know you have the most important piece to building a championship team. I think most people believe Victor can be the best player on a title-winning roster one day, so now the next step becomes getting the right pieces to put around him. You can do that by drafting in the lottery for years and years, or you can accelerate the process.

Instead of using those 2025, 2027 and 2029 picks on players that *might* be good one day, why not use them to acquire a proven player that you know can be Wemby's co-star? If you have Fox in the frontcourt to control the offense and open up Victor's game even more, that is a massive step forward for what the Spurs are trying to do.

Losing those ancillary players hurts at some level, but at this point, none of them are really projects anymore. Each of them has at least two NBA seasons under their belt, and you largely know who they are. All their collective talent is not enough to warrant saying "no thanks" to a former All-NBA player like De'Aaron Fox.