The Spurs’ list of realistic free-agent forward targets keeps shrinking, and Dean Wade is the latest name to come off the board.
According to Shams Charania, Wade has agreed to a four-year, $39 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. That news landed only a couple of hours after reports said Sandro Mamukelashvili is expected to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers. For San Antonio, that means two of the five players it was reportedly interested in at the start of free agency are already gone.
Wade had been the forward I liked best for the Spurs in an earlier ranking, and the fit made plenty of sense. He could have started or come off the bench, and his value on both ends would have slid right into Mitch Johnson’s system.
He doesn’t need the ball to matter on offense, and he defends hard. Bobby Marks made that case even more forcefully.
Wade started a career high 36 games this season, putting up 6.3 points per game while shooting 40.5% on 3’s. In the playoffs, he started all but two games. Against the Raptors, he held Brandon Ingram to 3-14 shooting in the first five games.
The $9m likely salary in year 1 comes out… https://t.co/a0zOGoarbc
- Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) July 1, 2026
That’s the kind of two-way role player the Spurs could have used. A forward hitting 40% from deep as a starter and holding up defensively against a scorer like Brandon Ingram would have fit neatly into the rotation. Losing out on Wade stings a little more than missing on Mamukelashvili.
And now the market is getting even thinner.
If San Antonio wants a power forward who can actually help, the options are down to John Collins, Rui Hachimura, and Tobias Harris. It wasn’t a deep group to begin with, and the pool keeps drying up.
If Wade did talk with the Spurs, the most obvious reason he went elsewhere is the longer-term security Philadelphia offered. San Antonio has been careful with its own money, too. Julian Champagnie only got two years added to his deal, and Harrison Barnes re-signed for just one.
That approach is about keeping room for the next wave of contracts. Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper are all headed toward eventual paydays, and De’Aaron Fox’s deal is set to kick in next season. On San Antonio’s books, the only player currently under contract past the 2028-29 season is Swipa.
The logic is straightforward: the Spurs know they’ll have to fill in around their stars as those extensions come due, but they’re not in a hurry to lock themselves into expensive long-term deals for everyone else. The CBA makes overspending painful, so shorter contracts are the safer play. That kind of prudence might cost them a free agent this summer, but it also looks like a trade they’re willing to make.
San Antonio has never been an organization that lets itself get pushed around by the calendar. That hasn’t changed.
Even if they end up landing nobody, they’ll still head into the new season as the team to beat. Any addition now would just be a bonus.
In Other News...
Celtics Just Made A Quiet Offseason Call On Two Young Picks
The offseason paperwork game has already started across the league, and the Spurs are part of it after sorting through a few roster decisions ahead of free agency. While some teams are simply choosing whether to keep a players NBA rights or let him hit the market, San Antonio has taken a more active step with two young pieces who spent time on two-way deals and now sit in a more protected spot entering the next phase of the summer.
Harrison Ingram and David Jones Garcia both received qualifying offers from the Spurs, which makes each of them a restricted free agent and keeps the team in position to match outside interest if it comes. The offers are structured differently, with Jones Garcia set up on another one-year two-way deal and Ingram on a standard one-year minimum-salary contract with some partial guarantee attached, a small but meaningful signal that San Antonio sees enough in both players to stay involved in what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Pelicans Could Be Near A Major Roster And Staff Decision
The Pelicans appear to have at least one offseason item already taking shape with Saddiq Bey. Bey and New Orleans have mutual interest in working toward a contract extension, and the forward becomes extension-eligible on July 11, giving the front office a clear date to circle as it sorts out the next phase of the roster under new head coach Jamahl Mosley.
There is also movement on the sideline, where assistant coach Jodie Meeks is not expected to return next season. For a Spurs team watching the Western Conference landscape and its familiar rivals, the broader roster and staff churn in New Orleans is another reminder that the offseason can reshape a contenders path as much as any trade or draft pick. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Just Sent A Telling Message About Their Wembanyama Timeline
The Spurs offseason approach has been about keeping the outline of the roster intact while leaving themselves room to react, and the latest contract decisions fit that perfectly. Julian Champagnie passed up the chance to play out the final year of his deal in favor of a longer stay, while Harrison Barnes opted for a shorter commitment that keeps both sides flexible as San Antonio builds around Victor Wembanyamas rise.
For a team that is still threading the needle between development and contention, that mix matters. The Spurs entered free agency with significant cap space and a clear preference for preserving options, which suggests the front office is not trying to force the timeline so much as manage it carefully. The bigger question now is how far they push that flexibility before the roster starts to look less like a placeholder and more like a finished product. [Read more 🡒]