The San Antonio Spurs have been one of many shock groups within the NBA this season.
With their younger celebrity, Victor Wembanyama, taking one other step ahead this season, he has helped the Spurs to a 17-16 report, which locations them ninth within the Western Convention standings. This season has been a whole turnaround from final yr the place they completed the season with simply 22 wins.
Whereas the Spurs’ success could be attributed to Wembanyama, their veteran additions of Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes additionally deserve credit score. Paul has been a terrific chief and has built-in effectively into San Antonio’s younger group. Barnes added some much-needed scoring to the Spurs lineup and was a terrific chief as effectively.
Though the Spurs are at the moment in playoff place, they might nonetheless make a transfer earlier than the February 6 commerce deadline. They have been linked to De’Aaron Fox of the Sacramento Kings, however they might pull off one other blockbuster with the New Orleans Pelicans for Zion Williamson.
With the Pelicans’ season already over attributable to their slew of accidents, they’re able to commerce away their stars, together with Zion, so as to add extra younger expertise and recruit capital to jumpstart their eventual rebuild.
In a doable commerce, the Spurs may ship Keldon Johnson, Zach Collins, Tre Jones and a number of other picks to New Orleans for Zion and Daniel Theis.
For the Spurs, buying Zion is a danger. The 2019 first general decide has dealt together with his fair proportion of accidents throughout his six seasons within the NBA, and it has been a lot of the identical this season.
Zion has solely performed in six video games this season attributable to a number of accidents, and he has solely performed in 190 profession video games over six seasons. Together with his well being being a problem, this could be a dangerous transfer for the Spurs, however one that would work attributable to his dominance when he is on the courtroom.
If the Spurs can pull off this blockbuster, Zion will give them one other dominant inside scorer. Pairing alongside Wembanyama would enable him to assault the rim because of Wembanyama’s skill to stretch the ground.
Whereas this commerce will not assist the Spurs win a championship this season, it will set them up for future success, particularly if Zion is ready to keep wholesome.
Extra NBA: Grizzlies may full blockbuster commerce for Pelicans celebrity value $197 million
