The San Antonio Spurs may already be lining up the next step in their backcourt plan, and it starts with Dylan Harper. After coming up just short in the NBA Finals last season, the Spurs are clearly operating like a team that thinks it’s close - and they’ve got the young talent to back that up.
Harper and Stephon Castle have become the center of the conversation, with their pairing drawing a big-time comparison from Charles Barkley.
“If I’m a guard in the NBA, I do not want to see them boys the next 10 years. They’re going to be the new Steph and Klay,” NBA legend Charles Barkley said.
That kind of buzz only adds to the growing belief around Harper inside the organization. ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said the Spurs see him as their No. 2 option behind Victor Wembanyama.
“The Spurs internally believe Dylan Harper is their second best player. That’s not a slight on De'Aaron Fox or Stephon Castle. Harper is a stud,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said.
With Harper climbing that quickly, a De’Aaron Fox trade starts to make more sense. Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz floated a deal that would send Fox to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Fred VanVleet and Jabari Smith Jr.
“For the Spurs, a return of VanVleet and his expiring $25 million salary and Jabari Smith Jr. would be enough to make the money work. Fox is the best overall player in the deal, although San Antonio would get off of his four-year, $221 million contract and open up a starting job for Harper, which is the ultimate goal here. Houston could ask for some draft compensation in return given the heftiness of Fox's contract, even if the two-time All-Star is a major upgrade over VanVleet,” Swartz wrote.
VanVleet is on an expiring $25 million contract, while Smith would give San Antonio another young piece to fold into the core. For the Spurs, the appeal is obvious: clear the path for Harper, move off Fox’s four-year, $221 million deal, and keep building around a group that already looks loaded for the long haul.
In Other News...
Spurs Rotation Shift Could Cost Julian Champagnie A Bigger Role
The Spurs frontcourt picture got a little clearer this summer with the addition of Tobias Harris, and that has naturally started to reshape the rotation around him. Harris is expected to handle the starting power forward spot once healthy, which gives San Antonio a veteran presence at a position it had to address, while also putting Julian Champagnie in a spot where his role could shift depending on how the roster settles in around the new arrival.
Champagnie is still positioned to open the season in the starting five because Harris is dealing with an injury, but the long view is less certain. His place in the lineup may not last once Harris is available, and for now the more interesting part is how he handles the change after showing an acceptance of whatever role the Spurs ask of him as they sort out the minutes. [Read more 🡒]
Victor Wembanyama Is Entering The Season With Massive MVP Pressure
Victor Wembanyama is walking into the season with a different kind of spotlight, and it is not hard to see why. NBCSports.coms analysts all pointed to the Spurs star as the early favorite for the NBAs Most Valuable Player award, leaning on what he already showed at an MVP level last season and the sense that there is still more room for him to grow. For San Antonio, that kind of recognition is a sign of how far the franchise has come in a short time, with Wembanyama no longer viewed as a future candidate so much as the standard everyone else is chasing.
The race will still have familiar heavyweights around it, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo all part of the conversation. But the real weight on Wembanyama is clear: this is the sort of projection that depends on him staying on the floor and the Spurs looking like one of the Wests best teams. For a player this young, the expectation is already enormous, and the season ahead could turn that buzz into something much bigger. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Fans Are Watching Dylan Harpers Messy Off-Court Story Closely
Dylan Harpers arrival in San Antonio had already put him under a brighter spotlight than most young guards get this early, and now some of that attention is spilling beyond the court. Harper has been tied on social media to allegations involving his girlfriend, JoJo Lacey, who was previously signed and waived by the Washington Mystics, turning what should have been a routine stretch of offseason chatter into a topic Spurs fans are monitoring closely.
So far, the situation has lived almost entirely in the online rumor mill. Anonymous posts have raised questions about Laceys conduct, but neither Harper nor Lacey has confirmed anything, and there has been no official statement from the Spurs or any police report to anchor the discussion. Until there is something more concrete, it remains the kind of off-court noise that can linger around a player without ever fully becoming a story, even as the lack of clarity keeps it from going away. [Read more 🡒]