The San Antonio Spurs may have spent most of their offseason attention elsewhere, but the move that could end up looking smartest is the one that barely raised an eyebrow outside the building: Julian Champagnie’s three-year, $45 million extension.
That number matters. John Hollinger of The Athletic had Champagnie pegged for at least $20 million per season on his next deal, so San Antonio wound up keeping him for at least $5 million less per year than that projection. For a player who has become one of the league’s best catch-and-shoot three-point threats, that’s a major win.
It’s also the kind of bargain that has to drive rival teams a little crazy. The Spurs found him off the scrap heap, developed him into a high-end shooter, and now have him locked in below market value. The comparisons to former Spur Danny Green make sense, but Champagnie has carved out a more complete game than that label suggests.
His playoff run made that clear. Champagnie hit 39.6% of his 6.7 three-point attempts per game, and he wasn’t just standing in the corner waiting for the ball.
He showed he could put it on the floor and attack close-outs, something Green never really offered. Add in his status as the team’s third-best rebounder and a versatile defender, and the Spurs have more than a specialist here.
That’s why the next question is less about what Champagnie is and more about where he fits. Even with Tobias Harris added this summer, the case for starting Champagnie next season is strong. San Antonio went 32-7 in the regular season with him as the full-time starter, and the lineup with De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell, Champagnie, and Victor Wembanyama was a blistering +22.3 in net rating in the playoffs.
The regular-season numbers were just as loud. The Spurs posted a +17.3 net rating with Champagnie starting at power forward, and across more than 60 games, the evidence points in the same direction: his shooting and versatility make the whole group better.
If San Antonio had opened last season with Champagnie in the starting five, the Spurs might have finished in the high 60s in wins. Instead, they’ve got a chance to build toward that kind of ceiling next season and beyond, with one of the league’s best value contracts already in place.
In Other News...
Spurs Just Sent A Clear Message With Their Riskiest Draft Bet
The Spurs have spent the last few years building real momentum around Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, and the payoff has already been obvious in the form of a Finals trip. So when San Antonio went into the 2026 NBA Draft and used the No. 20 pick on Jayden Quaintance, it fit a pattern the front office has leaned into since the rebuild started to accelerate: keep chasing difference-makers, even when the safer route is sitting right there.
Quaintance is the sort of bet that tells you where the Spurs think they are in the cycle. He brings the kind of upside teams usually reserve for much earlier in the draft, but his college rsum is still thin enough to leave plenty of questions attached to the selection. For a franchise that has surged all the way to 62 wins and the Finals, the message is less about playing it safe and more about refusing to settle now that the foundation is in place. [Read more 🡒]
Tarris Reed Jr Is Already Giving The Spurs Something They Needed
The Spurs did not sit still on draft night when they went after Tarris Reed Jr. at No. 26, and the early returns are easy to notice. Reed has already been on the floor in summer league wearing silver and black, and his first impression has centered on the kind of interior presence San Antonio has been looking to add around its young core.
In one of those games, Reed flashed exactly why the Spurs were willing to move up for him, giving them activity on the glass and a physical edge in the paint. His size and strength stand out immediately, and if that carries over, he could become the sort of frontcourt weapon that changes how defenses have to deal with Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper. [Read more 🡒]
Spurs Fans Suddenly Have A Wild Wemby Question To Consider
Victor Wembanyama is now in the window where the Spurs can lock him into a rookie-scale extension that would put him among the leagues highest-paid young stars. The number attached to that deal is enormous, with incentives capable of pushing it even higher, which is exactly why any discussion around the contract immediately spills beyond simple bookkeeping and into the bigger picture of what San Antonio can build around its franchise centerpiece.
What makes this one worth watching is the idea that there may be some room for flexibility if Wembanyama chooses a path that echoes a recent star example from New York. For the Spurs, that kind of breathing room would not just be about easing the cap sheet in the abstract, but about keeping the door open to a far more ambitious pursuit down the line, one that would have every fan in the building paying attention to the next move. [Read more 🡒]