The Spurs have a good problem on their hands after adding Tobias Harris, but it’s the kind that can force a real choice when training camp rolls around.
San Antonio now has two legitimate options at power forward, and both come with a case. Harris brings the resume of a proven veteran who has started on winning teams, while Julian Champagnie has already shown he can help the Spurs play at a higher level when he’s in the first five.
Harris makes sense on paper. He started at power forward for a 57-win Detroit Pistons team that reached the Eastern semifinals, and he brings more than a thousand games of NBA experience with nearly 1400 career threes.
Even late in his career, he’s still producing like a player who understands how to bend a defense. He can score in a few different ways, working smaller defenders in the post, taking bigger players off the dribble on closeouts, and knocking down mid-range looks at a high rate.
Defensively, he can handle larger matchups, including Karl-Anthony Towns, even if he’s not an elite stopper.
But the Spurs already have evidence that Champagnie fits the starting group better.
He spent the second half of the season as San Antonio’s starter at power forward, and the team was clearly better with him there. His size, three-point shooting, defense, and rebounding gave the Spurs the kind of balance that works next to De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, and Victor Wembanyama. That lineup posted a +17.6 net rating in the regular season, and it was even stronger in the playoffs at +22.4.
That’s not a small sample worth ignoring. It’s the kind of lineup data that tells a coach to stay the course.
For Mitch Johnson, the temptation will be to find a way to get Harris’ scoring into the mix right away. And he should have a role.
Harris is good enough to start for plenty of teams. But the Spurs may be better served keeping Champagnie in the opening lineup and letting Harris bring his offense off the bench.
If Fox bounces back and Castle and Wembanyama keep improving, San Antonio’s best version may already be sitting in front of them. The safer move, and maybe the smarter one, is to leave that group intact and let Harris change games from the second unit.
In Other News...
Spurs Suddenly Face A Real De'Aaron Fox Contract Problem
De'Aaron Fox gave the Spurs the kind of postseason burst they were hoping for at the start, but the finish line looked a lot different. His play tailed off in the Western Conference Finals and then dropped again in the NBA Finals, enough to revive the old concerns that have followed him into San Antonio: whether the speed that made him such a dangerous guard is starting to fade, and whether that matters even more now that the games are at their biggest.
It is not just a short-term wobble, either. Fox is on a max deal worth $221.7 million over the next four years, and that kind of money changes the conversation fast when the production is uneven. Around the league, his contract has already drawn harsh reviews, which leaves the Spurs with a tricky question as they build around Victor Wembanyama: if Fox is not quite the co-star they envisioned, what exactly is the best way to use him? [Read more 🡒]
Julian Champagnie's Extension Signals A Bigger Spurs Squeeze Is Coming
Julian Champagnies new extension is another sign the Spurs are trying to thread a very narrow financial needle as they build around Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper. San Antonio chose a three-year, $45 million commitment rather than a longer one, a tell that the front office is already planning for the cap squeeze that comes with keeping a young core intact while preserving room for future moves.
The bigger picture is less about Champagnie alone than the way the Spurs are staggering contract decisions to avoid painting themselves into a corner. Every extension, every expiration date and every roster choice now has to fit a long-range plan, and that means the team is weighing how much flexibility it can afford to give up before the next wave of decisions arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Suddenly Face A Massive De'Aaron Fox Decision
With Victor Wembanyama now locked in on an extension, the Spurs are already looking ahead to the next phase of roster building, and that has put De'Aaron Fox squarely in the middle of the conversation. San Antonio is weighing whether to keep the guard as part of the core or use him as a way to reshape the roster and trim money, a decision that says as much about the teams long-term direction as it does about Foxs fit.
Brandon Ingram has surfaced as a possible target in that kind of shuffle, giving the Spurs a very different type of offensive piece to consider around Wembanyama. The idea is still fluid, and the larger question is whether San Antonio wants to lean into continuity with Fox or pivot toward a different lineup balance as the front office keeps sorting through its options. [Read more 🡒]