After weeks of speculation and a public announcement of his desire to go to San Antonio, De’Aaron Fox finally got his wish. In a three-team blockbuster, Swipa heads to the Alamo City.
Sacramento for their part acquired Zach LaVine and a slew of picks, while Chicago provided both trade partners with vital salary relief in order to get their own 2025 first rounder back.
It’s a trade with a lot of moving parts, but to me, the only truly relevant takeaway here is from San Antonio. The Spurs, championship contenders for the vast majority of my lifetime, look set to return to that level after acquiring Fox.
It’s an uncharacteristically aggressive move from a franchise that has mostly built through the draft, but it was a no-brainer.
When else is a player like Fox, a bonafide top-20 talent who fits perfectly alongside Victor Wembanyama, going to serve himself up on a silver platter? And when else in Wemby’s career will you actually have the assets to make that sort of trade?
It might have sped up the timeline quicker than San Antonio planned, but it just made too much sense not to do. Fox, a 25 point-per-game scorer with elite pick-and-roll ability, gives the Spurs a worthy number two alongside Wemby. If you had to put a list together of the best complements to everything Wemby does, Fox is at or near the top of the list.
The outgoing draft capital doesn’t matter. If you’re San Antonio, you’re staring down a future of deep playoff runs and backend draft slots. Draft picks don’t really matter. What does matter is giving Wembanyama a quality sidekick.
But what was most interesting to me about this trade is that the Spurs don’t really do this very often.
You’d think a franchise with this much success dating back to the 1970s would have made bigger trades to acquire stars. I mean, from 1977 to 2019, San Antonio only missed the playoffs four times. What’s impressive to me is that the Fox trade is the first time in that heralded history the Spurs have relied on a trade to get into contention. Let’s break it down:
The Spurs truly arrived as a serious contender with David Robinson’s arrival in 1989, two years after San Antonio drafted him number one overall (he missed his first two years while serving in the Navy).
San Antonio went to the playoffs in each of Robinson’s first seven years before going 20-67 in 1996-97 largely due to Robinson’s broken foot. The horrible record propelled the Spurs into the number one pick in the ensuing draft, which allowed them to pick… Tim Duncan. The rest is history with him.
San Antonio won its first title in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season, and won four more titles spearheaded in part by Duncan. But even Duncan’s most important teammates in that run were all drafted and developed in South Texas.
Manu Ginobili was the Spurs’ second-round pick in the draft right after that first title, and Tony Parker was the team’s first-rounder two years later in 2001.
That iconic trio was responsible for the 2003, 2005, and 2007 rings before Kawhi Leonard came along in 2011 draft and spearheaded a championship team in 2014.
It’s often forgotten that the Pacers drafted Kawhi and traded him to San Antonio on draft night. Kawhi still counts as a homegrown Spurs talent.
Even after trading Kawhi, the Spurs only had to wander the desert for a few years until lottery lightning struck again, handing them Victor Wembanyama.
Nonetheless, from Robinson’s debut to now, the Gregg Popovich-led infrastructure in San Antonio has been reluctant to be super aggressive on the trade market. They’ve prided themselves on developing through the draft, and their success in that has been remarkable.
But in 2025, when players move more than ever before, adaptation is crucial. I’m glad to see San Antonio finally dive head-first into the trade market to give their generational talent a partner of Fox’s caliber. It made too much sense not to do.
The west is loaded, and Wemby and Fox will need to gel quickly if they want to be real contenders right away. Nonetheless, I have no doubt the Spurs are back. Wembanyama and Fox are too good of a combo for San Antonio not to be among the league’s best teams in the very near future.
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