The Spurs and Trade Exceptions in the Upcoming Trade Deadline

The San Antonio Spurs are projected to have 13 players on the roster going into next season. Should the Spurs look to clear some roster space in this trade deadline?

Heading into next season, the San Antonio Spurs are projected to have 13 players with standard NBA contracts, when you account for 11 players with guaranteed deals, two incoming first round picks, and two players on non-guaranteed deals.

That means by the time next season kicks off in October 2025, the Spurs would only be able to add two players in the offseason on standard NBA contracts.

That’s also not considering what if the Spurs want to bring back some of their own upcoming free agents, like Chris Paul, Tre Jones, Charles Bassey, or Sandro Mamukelashvili?

Out of the players listed in the table above, three of those players haven’t been in the rotation much at all when the team got relatively healthy - Sidy Cissoko, Blake Wesley, and Malaki Branham.

Now, Cissoko has never been in the rotation, with him still spending more time in Austin this season. He’s on a non-guaranteed contract going into next season. Wesley and Branham got some minutes early in the season, but they’ve both only played in the last 1.5 months when a game has already been pretty much decided.

Both Wesley and Branham will be on guaranteed contracts next season, and then they’ll both have the potential to enter restricted free agency in the summer of 2026.

With the NBA trade deadline coming up in 2 weeks, what if the Spurs were to look at moving either player by this deadline, to have some more roster space going into the offseason?

With a focus on teams with trade exceptions, disabled player exceptions, and mid-level exceptions from the summer that went unused, I’ve broken down teams that would be able to acquire either Wesley or Branham, with an emphasis on lottery teams.

While there’s been no reporting the Spurs are looking to move either Wesley or Branham, this is the time of year when a lottery team might want to give a young player a shot, to see with a bigger role and more minutes, if that player can stand out in the 1.5 years left on their deal.