After their massive jump during Monday's NBA Draft Lottery, things just continue to fall into place for the San Antonio Spurs. A team filled with exciting young talent headed up by Victor Wembanyama is in an exceedingly good spot to get back to the playoffs in the near future. But when it comes to figuring out their next step toward leveling up, one perhaps unpopular option is going to need to be considered: Trading De'Aaron Fox.
Now, hear me out here. I know what you're thinking. Why on earth would the Spurs deal away the guy they just spend so much acquiring at this past season's trade deadline? What would be the purpose in getting him on this roster just to dump him a few short months later? Well, the answer partly lies in what happened on Monday.
After [San Antonio's draft position improved](https://airalamo.com/spurs-major-draft-lottery-win-unfortunate-revelation) during the lottery and with them now set to select second overall on June 25, they will have another exciting young talent to add to their core, and it's all but guaranteed to be Rutgers' Dylan Harper. What that means is that the Spurs' young core is now that much deeper, and their future options just got more flexible.
If you're the Spurs and you're looking at your team's roster, you'll notice something right away about the best players wearing Silver and Black. They're all young now, except for De'Aaron Fox. San Antonio's deadline addition now appears to be just a tad bit out of place.
Trading De'Aaron Fox could be a sneaky good move
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A core of Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper would theoretically be all the Spurs would need to begin competing at a high level once again, and it could be the group that leads them to winning seasons for the next 15 years. Unfortunately, given his age, Fox is simply not on the same timeline as these other guys.
Trading Fox now might seem like a rash move, but perhaps what we're seeing is that the decision to bring him on ahead of the February deadline [was actually the real biggest mistake](https://airalamo.com/spurs-lottery-gift-shows-blockbuster-trade-was-impatient-blunder-fox) here. It was a quicker decision made by the front office to get the Spurs back in the playoff picture. And before Wemby's unfortunate injury, it was likely going to pay off and get them at least back in to the play-in range in the Western Conference.
But after San Antonio's seven-foot-four alien missed the final two months of the season, playoffs suddenly became a pipe dream for this team. Nevertheless, a few lucky bounces of the ping pong balls and the Spurs ended up right back near the top of the lottery selections.
You can look at this one of two ways. One, with the perspective that San Antonio should have remained patient to start with and not jumped at a player like Fox. But two, that having Fox on the roster is actually a positive, and trading him will make it easier for the Spurs to keep stacking assets while investing fully in their young core.
It's up to you to take the glass-half-empty or glass-half-full mindset. But what's near-indisputable here is that De'Aaron Fox makes a lot less sense for the Spurs than he did three months ago. Moving on from him could be the final step that catapults San Antonio back to the level they've been aiming for.