Entering Free Agency: Dominick Barlow

So long as the San Antonio Spurs tender Dominick Barlow a qualifying offer in June, he'll enter restricted free agency in July.

Last week I wrote about San Antonio Spurs forward Cedi Osman entering free agency this summer. Today, let’s look back at Dominick Barlow’s season and his upcoming free agency in July.

Why couldn’t Barlow find a consistent spot in the rotation?

Last summer the Spurs had a lot of players on the roster with guaranteed contracts entering training camp, so though the team wanted Barlow back, he had to settle for another two-way contract to return to San Antonio.

Once the trade deadline passed and the Spurs had an opening on their roster, they ended up converting Barlow’s two-way contract to a standard NBA contract for the rest of the season.

It was another season where there were too many bigs in the lineup ahead of Barlow. To start the season, Victor Wembanyama and Zach Collins started together, which gave Charles Bassey the backup center minutes until he suffered a season ending injury.

By December, the Wemby-Collins starting frontcourt wasn’t working out, so the Spurs ended up starting Victor at the 5 for the remainder of the season, and Collins became the new backup 5.

When Collins suffered an ankle injury to begin the month of January, Barlow was able to get his most minutes during the season, playing in 12 January games and logging 18.5 minutes per game as the backup 5.

Once Collins was back and fully healthy, Barlow’s playing time would mainly come on nights when either Collins or Wembanyama were out due to injury.

Barlow missed the last month of the season due to a left knee injury.

What numbers did Barlow have on offense this season?

In 33 games with the Spurs this season, Barlow averaged 4.4 points and 1.1 assists to 0.3 turnovers in 12.7 minutes per night. He had shooting splits of 49.6/33.3/69 percent on 3.4 shots, 0.3 threes, and 1.3 free throw attempts.

Created by @PaulGarciaNBA

Barlow’s shot chart shows most of his attempts came in the paint, where he scored over a point per shot. If he wasn’t trying to finish layups or dunks, Barlow had the hook shot he would go to, and from time-to-time, he would attempt a mid-ranger, or if he was left wide open, a corner three.

Overall though, inside scoring was his main go-to location.

What were Barlow’s numbers on defense?

Barlow averaged 3.4 rebounds, 0.4 steals, 0.4 blocks, and 1.4 fouls in 12.7 minutes per game.

When his per 36-minutes numbers are compared to other Spurs bigs who logged over 400 minutes, Barlow stood out in contested shots, and when you combined his deflections, steals, contested shots, blocks, and defensive rebounds MINUS personal fouls, the equation has him second behind only Wemby.

There were some games when Collins was returning from injury, where if Barlow was playing better in a game, Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich would allow Barlow to finish a second half over Collins. Overall though, Collins was able to keep his role as the backup 5 for San Antonio once he was fully healthy again.

What kind of free agent will Barlow be?

As long as the Spurs tender him a qualifying offer of $2.3 million by June 29, Barlow will be a restricted free agent beginning July 1.

This means should Barlow receive an offer sheet from another team during free agency, the Spurs would have the opportunity to match the offer sheet (more details below), to have Barlow return next season on the terms of the offer sheet.

If the Spurs don’t tender Barlow a qualifying offer by June 29, then he would enter free agency as an unrestricted free agent.

If the Spurs were to tender Barlow the qualifying offer and if he accepted the offer, he would be under contract next season for $2.3 million and then in the summer of 2025, he would be an unrestricted free agent.

Is there room on the Spurs’ roster for Barlow?

This is an interesting question because the roster is already almost full before free agency even begins. As I outlined in an overview of the Spurs’ cap space, there’s a chance the Spurs may have 14 players on the roster entering July 1 IF they land the Toronto Raptors’ first pick in the draft lottery May 12.

Not only is Barlow a free agent, but so is Osman, and Sandro Mamukelashvili.

The Spurs have pathways to open some roster spots whether via waiving players on non or partially guaranteed contracts, but if they want to pursue other free agents or make big trades, it’ll be interesting to see how high on their list bringing back Barlow will be.

From another perspective, since Barlow is just 20 years old and he is entering his 3rd season, if the Spurs’ front office feels that he’s making the right growth and will continue to improve as a big in their long-term plans, then maybe bringing back Barlow back will be a priority for the team.

What is Barlow’s projected salary range?