David Jones Garcia’s return to full health might be one of the quieter but more important developments in Spurs camp.
The attention around San Antonio has mostly been on the guard rotation at the top - who starts, and whether Julian Champagnie keeps his spot after the Tobias Harris acquisition. Fair enough.
Those are real questions. But there’s another one hanging out there too: who takes the fourth guard job?
Right now, that opening looks like it should belong to Jones Garcia.
The 24-year-old was rolling with the Austin Spurs before a right ankle injury on January 10 shut him down for the season. At the time, he was putting up 26.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.5 assists, ranking fifth in the G League in scoring and closing in on a spot in the 2026 Rising Stars game. Then the injury hit, the season ended, and all that momentum disappeared.
Now he’s back on a two-way contract, and the Spurs still have one standard roster spot open while carrying 14 standard deals. Behind De’Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper, and Stephon Castle, there’s room for another guard - and Jones Garcia has the profile to fill it.
Jordan McLaughlin deserves credit for what he already gives San Antonio. He played 44 games for the Silver and Black last season and hit 42.5% of his threes.
When Swipa went down in the playoffs, McLaughlin handled the responsibility well enough that the rotation stayed intact. That matters.
But McLaughlin also averaged just 2.0 points and 0.9 assists, and he’s a 30-year-old entering his eighth season. At 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, he knows exactly who he is.
The problem for him isn’t reliability. It’s upside.
And upside is what the Spurs can actually use in that fourth guard spot. Fox, Harper, and Castle are going to soak up the meaningful on-ball work.
The next guard doesn’t need to be another primary creator as much as he needs to play alongside those three. Jones Garcia, at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, gives San Antonio something different: size, versatility, and the ability to finish over defenders.
He’s six years younger, five inches taller, and the better athlete.
There was already a small preview of that last season. On November 20 against the Hawks, with Victor Wembanyama, Castle, and Harper all out, Jones Garcia logged 19 minutes - more than his entire season total had been up to that point. He came through with 12 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals in a 135-126 win.
That still isn’t a full sample. Eleven games and 2.9 points per night don’t settle anything.
The Spurs still need to see whether he can be a reliable catch-and-shoot scorer, because that’s where he’d fit best. But the production he showed in Austin wasn’t empty, and the flashes in San Antonio were real enough to matter.
The job should go to the best player. If McLaughlin wins it, so be it. But if Jones Garcia keeps making his case through camp and preseason, the Spurs would be better off with the taller, more versatile option in that spot.
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 🡒]
Rockets Suddenly Linked To A De'Aaron Fox Move That Changes Everything
The Spurs have spent this stretch leaning into their young core, with guards Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle drawing a lot of attention as the organization keeps shaping its backcourt around Victor Wembanyama. Harper in particular has flashed enough to fuel the kind of optimism that usually comes with a premium draft pick, and the teams long-term picture appears to be getting clearer by the week as San Antonio continues to prioritize development over short-term fixes.
Thats where the DeAaron Fox conversation starts to get interesting, because the Spurs have more to sort through than just playing time at guard. If Harper is going to be part of the front line moving forward, Fox becomes the name that could alter the rotation and the roster balance in a hurry, with one scenario even sending him to Houston. For a team still defining its next version, the decision could say plenty about how quickly San Antonio wants to accelerate the timeline around Wembanyama and the young guards beside him. [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 🡒]