The San Antonio Spurs are heading into training camp with their picture mostly clear.
The team announced a 21-man roster ahead of camp, which opens Tuesday at Victory Capital Performance Center, and the group includes 12 holdovers from last season’s NBA Finals team. That list features the Spurs’ top 10 scorers from a year ago. San Antonio’s annual Media Day is set for Monday.
This year’s roster is built around 14 players on standard contracts, three on two-way deals and four training camp invites as Mitch Johnson enters his second full season as head coach.
There’s still a bit of roster math to sort through. San Antonio’s payroll is now around $197.6 million, which leaves the club $2.84 million under the $200.43 million luxury-tax line and $11.42 million below the first apron at $209.02 million. The Spurs still have one standard contract available, but they must trim the roster to 18 total players by Oct. 19, the day before the regular season starts.
The back end of the roster got a little sharper in the process. Miles Barnstable and Jayden Nunn are not among the four camp invites after signing Exhibit 10 deals earlier this month. If either player goes back to the Austin Spurs for at least 60 days, he can earn a bonus worth up to $91,000.
That same bonus is available to Davis, Peter, Elmore and Williams if they are waived before the regular season and spend 60 days in Austin.
The roster sheet also gives a new look at a couple of familiar names. Carter Bryant is listed at 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds, up from 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds last season. Victor Wembanyama remains listed at 7-foot-4 and 240 pounds, unchanged from a year ago.
On the coaching side, San Antonio’s staff is mostly the same, with one major change. Billy Donovan, the former Oklahoma City Thunder and Chicago Bulls head coach, is now on Johnson’s bench after Sean Sweeney left in the offseason to become head coach of the Orlando Magic. Donovan, Corliss Williamson, Mike Noyes, Scott King and Matt Nielsen are listed as assistant coaches this season.
Last year, Sweeney carried the associate head coach title, while the rest of Johnson’s staff was listed as assistant coaches. The Spurs did not give Donovan or anyone else that designation on the training camp roster.
San Antonio begins camp on Sept. 29 and will open a five-game preseason schedule against the Atlanta Hawks on Oct. 8 at Frost Bank Center.
In Other News...
Spurs Have A Big Question As Their Guard Trio Takes On More
Mitch Johnson is pushing the Spurs toward a bigger role for their young guard trio, with Dylan Harper, DeAaron Fox and Stephon Castle expected to share the floor more often than they did a year ago. The idea is built on what the group flashed in limited stretches last season, and San Antonio wants to see those promising moments turn into something more stable as the minutes start to rise.
For that to work, the fit has to be cleaner away from the ball. Johnson has pointed to the need for the guards to sharpen the little things that make an overloaded backcourt function, especially spacing the floor and cutting hard to the rim. It is the kind of adjustment that could unlock the lineup, and also the part of the experiment that will decide whether the Spurs can keep leaning into it. [Read more 🡒]
Wembanyama May Need One New Weapon To Protect His Future
Victor Wembanyama already stands out as one of the leagues most difficult scorers to game-plan for, thanks to a skill set that stretches defenses in almost every direction. But as the Spurs continue managing his development, there is a growing basketball case for adding another layer to his attack, one that could make him even harder to defend while also helping preserve the kind of body that has to carry a massive workload.
The idea is pretty simple: if Wembanyama can become more dependable from the middle of the floor, he may not have to absorb so much contact at the rim or rely as heavily on the same high-impact possessions every night. His current touch from that area leaves room for growth, and for a player with his long-term importance in San Antonio, the payoff would not just be about scoring. It would be about building a path that keeps his game efficient, sustainable and a little easier on his future. [Read more 🡒]
Tobias Harris Just Changed A Tough Spurs Decision
Tobias Harris arrived in San Antonio as one of the more interesting offseason additions, and the fit already feels like a live roster question for the Spurs. At media day, Harris made it clear he is focused on winning and is prepared to handle whatever role the team asks of him, which is exactly the kind of flexibility a young team wants from a veteran forward.
The complication is obvious enough: Devin Vassell and Julian Champagnie are the current starting forwards, and Harris gives the Spurs another proven option in that same mix. His place in the rotation will come down to what the team needs and how everyone performs, making this less about a simple signing and more about an early-season decision that could shape the way the Spurs line up. [Read more 🡒]