Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2026 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the San Antonio Spurs.
Free agent signings
Tobias Harris: Two years, $30,840,200. Fully guaranteed. Signed using non-taxpayer mid-level exception.
Harrison Barnes: One year, $8,000,000. Fully guaranteed. Re-signed using Bird rights. Waived right to veto trade.
Jordan McLaughlin: One year, minimum salary. Fully guaranteed. Re-signed using minimum salary exception. Waived right to veto trade.
Taelon Peter: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 9/10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
Trades
Acquired the draft rights to Tarris Reed Jr. (No. 26 pick) from the Nuggets in exchange for the No. 35 pick in the 2026 draft, the Timberwolves’ 2028 second-round pick, and the Kings’ 2031 second-round pick.
Draft picks
1-20: Jayden Quaintance
Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $18,913,141). First two years guaranteed. Third- and fourth-year team options.
1-26: Tarris Reed Jr.
Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $15,794,137). First two years guaranteed. Third- and fourth-year team options.
2-42: Ja’Kobi Gillespie
Signed to two-way contract.
2-44: Maliq Brown
Signed to two-way contract.
Two-way signings
Maliq Brown
One year, $91,000 partial guarantee (will increase to $339,441 at start of regular season).
Ja’Kobi Gillespie
One year, $91,000 partial guarantee (will increase to $339,441 at start of regular season).
David Jones Garcia
One year, $91,000 partial guarantee (will increase to $339,441 at start of regular season).
Departed/unsigned free agents
Bismack Biyombo (unsigned)
Harrison Ingram (Jazz)
Kelly Olynyk (unsigned)
Mason Plumlee (unsigned)
Lindy Waters III (unsigned)
Other roster moves
Signed Victor Wembanyama to a five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale contract extension that begins in 2027/28. Fifth-year player option. Trade kicker (15%). Projected value of $252,300,000.
Signed Julian Champagnie to a three-year, $45,000,000 veteran contract extension that begins in 2026/27. Fully guaranteed.
Waived Emanuel Miller (two-way contract).
Salary cap situation
Note: Figures are rounded to one decimal place.
Operating over the cap ($165MM) and below the first tax apron ($209MM).
Hard-capped at first apron.
Team salary: $198.3MM (tax); $201MM (apron)
Below luxury tax line by $2.1MM; below hard cap by $8MM.
Full bi-annual exception ($5.1MM) available.
The offseason so far
The Spurs hadn’t won more than 34 regular season games in any of the six seasons leading up to 2025/26, missing the playoffs on each of those occasions. But they made an enormous leap up the standings this past season, going 60-22 and entering the postseason as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.
San Antonio defeated Portland and then Minnesota in the first two rounds of the playoffs before facing the top-seeded Thunder in the Western finals. The Spurs dethroned the 2025 champions in a thrilling seven-game series, but their inexperienced was exposed in the NBA Finals against the Knicks. Despite building double-digit leads in each contest, San Antonio lost the series in five games.
Entering the offseason, the Spurs were focused on improving their frontcourt depth at both power forward and center. They addressed the center spot in the 2026 draft, having selected former Kentucky big man Jayden Quaintance with the 20th pick, then attached a pair of future second-rounders to the 35th pick to acquire ex-UConn center Tarris Reed Jr. with the 26th selection.
While Quaintance was viewed as a possible lottery pick if he had been healthy, he missed most of last season while recovering from a torn ACL and is expected to be sidelined for much of his rookie campaign after undergoing meniscus surgery last month.
Quaintance, who was one of the youngest players selected in June, represented a clear upside swing for the Spurs, who have star Victor Wembanyama and backup Luke Kornet as their main options in the middle. Reed, on the other hand, is four years older than Quaintance and is expected to be closer to contributing right away.
San Antonio added two more players in the second round, taking point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie with the 42nd pick and forward Maliq Brown at No. 44. Both players signed two-way contracts, and two-way restricted free agent David Jones Garcia is back on another two-way deal as well.
A day before free agency opened, the Spurs declined their $3MM team option on Julian Champagnie for 2026/27 in order to sign him to a three-year, $45MM contract extension. That deal essentially tacked on an additional $42MM over two years to the $3MM Champagnie would have made had the option been exercised.
Declining Champagnie’s option and extending him during the 2025/26 league year made his cap hit higher in ’26/27 but smaller in ’27/28 and ’28/29. In addition to rewarding Champagnie for his strong play the past couple years, the extension gave the Spurs another reasonable mid-sized salary to potentially use in trades in the future.
The Spurs were linked to a variety of different forwards entering free agency and ultimately signed veteran Tobias Harris, who spent the past two seasons helping Detroit make its own significant rise up the Eastern Conference standings. The 34-year-old received $30.8MM over two years from San Antonio, which used its non-taxpayer mid-level exception to complete the signing.
San Antonio also re-signed veteran forward Harrison Barnes (one-year, $8MM) and brought back Jordan McLaughlin on a minimum-salary contract. The new deals for Champagnie, Harris, Barnes and McLaughlin are all fully guaranteed, whereas training camp invitee Taelon Peter was signed to a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contract that also features Exhibit 9 language.
Adding Quaintance, Reed and Harris, extending Champagnie, and retaining Barnes and McLaughlin used up most of San Antonio’s financial flexibility and roster spots. Veterans Bismack Biyombo, Kelly Olynyk, Mason Plumlee and Lindy Waters III, who finished last season with the Spurs, are all still on the open market, while former two-way player Harrison Ingram signed an Exhibit 10 deal with Utah.
Of course, the most important move the Spurs made this summer was signing Wembanyama to a five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extension. That deal, which begins in 2027/28, has a projected value of $252.3MM.
Wembanyama opted against including Rose rule language in that contract, which would have pushed the projected value up to $302.8MM if he had made an All-NBA team, won MVP, or won another Defensive Player of the Year award in 2026/27. Still, the 25% max he signed for was the most he was eligible to receive at the time.
Up next
The Spurs currently have 14 players on guaranteed standard contracts and seem likely to open the season with a 14-man standard roster; adding a 15th player would push their team salary over the luxury tax line unless that 15th man is a draft-rights second-rounder.
While San Antonio is only $2.1MM below the luxury tax line, the team could surpass that threshold if it wants to. The more important threshold for the Spurs is the first tax apron, at which the team is hard-capped. San Antonio currently has $8MM in breathing room beneath the first apron and still has its $5.1MM bi-annual exception available if it chooses to add a player on a smaller salary down the line.
The two-way spots for Gillespie and Brown seem pretty safe considering they were just drafted two months ago, but it’s possible the third spot could be up for grabs. Jones Garcia put up big numbers in the G League last season, but perhaps Peter or another Exhibit 10 camp invitee could claim that spot if they impress during training camp and/or the preseason.
Reigning Sixth Man of the Year Keldon Johnson is entering the final year of his contract (he’ll earn $17.5MM this season) and will be extension eligible for the entire 2026/27 league year, which runs through June 30, 2027. Starting wing Devin Vassell, meanwhile, has a short window (Oct. 1-19) during which he can negotiate a new deal.
There’s no pressing need to extend Vassell, who’s now in the third season of a five-year rookie scale extension. I’d also be mildly surprised if Johnson receives an extension, at least this offseason, because his playoff performance fell far short of his regular season production.
It’s worth noting that San Antonio has more draft capital available than many of the other contending teams and the Spurs are well positioned to make a major trade down the line if they think it will push them over the top. But that seems fairly unlikely to occur before the regular season tips off in October.
Luke Adams contributed to this article.