The San Antonio Spurs, Who Never Tank, Just Tanked With The Best Of Them

ATLANTA, GA – FEBRUARY 11: Dejounte Murray #5 of the San Antonio Spurs drives the ball past Trae … [+] Young #11 of the Atlanta Hawks during the first half of a game at State Farm Arena on February 11, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Casey Sykes/Getty Images)

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Speculating that some NBA teams may already be planning to tank for the first overall pick in the 2023 Draft and a shot at the unicorn Victor Wembanyama is not entirely baseless. Indeed, one team seems to have taken the doubt out of it.

Amid all the pre-free agency news, one domino fell. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that the San Antonio Spurs will trade Dejounte Murray to the Atlanta Hawks, in exchange for multiple draft assets; specifically, three future first-round picks stretching as far into the future as 2027, an unprotected right to swap picks in 2026, and Danilo Gallinari.

For a team in the lottery to trade away a 25-year-old two-way All-Star still yet to enter the prime of his flourishing career seems, on the surface at least, to be anathema to what the lottery is for. This is a player who keeps getting better, who should continue to do so, and who thus figures to make his team better too, on a favourable timeline.

It is particularly anathema to the San Antonio Spurs, who, simply, just do not do things like this. In the 49 seasons since they joined the NBA, the Spurs have won five NBA Championships, made the playoffs a whopping 42 times, and have only finished below a .500 record on eight occasions. This is not normally the volatile boom-and-bust team. This is the consistent winner.

However, three of those eight times have been in the last three seasons. The Spurs have won 32 of 72, 33 of 72 and 34 of 82 regular season games in that span, thus finding themselves in the worst place to be; stuck in the middle, not good enough to compete, but not bad enough to reap the benefits of the draft. And it is not a coincidence that those three years have been the same span in which Murray has steadily ascended into becoming an All-Star.

If the mid-range area of the standings and resultant stagnation is bad for business, then the question becomes whether to try to boom or to bust. And the answer to that question hinges on both the ceiling and the floor of the best player, for, as far as he goes (or cannot go), so do the team.

If the Spurs did not think that Dejounte Murray is or would ever be good enough to be the best player on a contending team, but is good enough to thwart the tank, they had reason to deal him. Similarly, if the Hawks feel that Murray is good enough to be the second-best player on a contender, they had reason to want him, especially at the price of only future assets that they will not likely need if contending.

Murray in Atlanta will join with Trae Young, an offensive dynamo who needs both plenty of defensive help and a release valve. As one of the game’s backcourt defenders, Murray immediately helps there, and while his own scoring game is limited, his presence as a ball-handler and playmaker will allow Young – if he is complicit, which he should be – to engage more in off-ball actions. Steph Curry has transformed the point guard position not only with the quality of his shot, but also in how much he is prepared to move around to get it. Trae has Steph’s range; if he can add in the movement as well, the Hawks may be able to unearth new levels of offense while getting a substantial defensive upgrade.

This deal is also an affirmation of why the Hawks signed and traded for Gallinari in the first place, two years ago, despite them not having any sizeable hole for him on the roster, his high price point and his further cluttering of an unclear frontcourt rotation. There was always an element of “we’ll figure it out later” to that deal, an opportunity to get a quality player while they could,, irrespective of the place he would have going forwards. And it seems they figured it out later.

None of this will be of any comfort to the Spurs’ faithful, for whom the open signal to tank is fairly egregious. To get a steal of a late first-round draft pick, developing him, support him through serious injury, sign him for relatively cheap (currently halfway through a four year, $64 million extension) watch him flourish and yet then trade him away for yet more draft capital, is unsavoury.

However, it is perhaps a necessary evil. The last few instances of competitive San Antonio Spurs teams died away through not selling high on the players involved, and the diminished returns presented no opportunity to meaningfully reload. In this instance, the team has sold high and picked a lane, albeit an unsatisfying one for a while. And they are leaning into it.

Tanking is supposed to be unpleasant. No one is supposed to like all that losing. It is a fairly blunt symptom of a loss of hope. Be upset. But do not be annoyed. Deliberately getting worse has its purposes and its merits, and the efficacy of it will take some years to be fully measurable.

As for the Hawks, they just got a Bentley on long-term lease. Worry about settling the balance later.