The Spurs Decided To Back Up The Brinks Truck And Sign De'Aaron Fox To A Massive 4/$229M Max Extension

Kenny Giarla. Getty Images.

When you look across the landscape in the Western Conference, no matter how you slice it, things are an absolute bloodbath. This was also true last season, with the top 8 seeds winning at least 48 games and seeds 3-5 all finishing 50-32. This summer, it's been a bit of an arms race in that conference as everyone out West tries to catch the Thunder, as teams like HOU, LAL, DEN, and LAC have all made big moves that they all feel puts them into legit title contention. 

But what makes the West so devastating isn't just teams that we saw finish in the top 8 last year, it's also the fact that even the teams at the bottom of the conference are loaded with legit young talent who look poised to make some sort of leap this season. The perfect example of this type of team is obviously the San Antonio Spurs.

Wemby has been fully cleared to return from his blood clot issue. Rookie Of The Year Stephon Castle you imagine will have some sort of Year 2 leap. They signed the best backup center on the market in Luke Kornet and drafted Dylan Harper to pair next to Castle for their next wave. That alone would be enough for an encouraging summer heading into Year 3 of Wemby, but the Spurs weren't done

Live look at De'Aaron Fox

Now I can understand the sticker shock seeing a 1x All Star/1x All NBA (3rd team) player in De'Aaron Fox snag a $266M max extension that pays him in the low 50s and escalates all the way to the low 60s by the end of it. That's a shit ton of money, no two ways about it.

But as you can see, the timing of it all matters. Considering the Spurs are positioned well in terms of their roster cost and all the aprons, I look at this extension as simply the price of doing business. When the Spurs first traded for Fox, it felt like this eventual extension was a formality, so I'm not all that surprised that he got it. The Spurs had the money to spend, he's an important piece for the "now" part of the Spurs rebuild, considering you don't exactly want to be relying solely on two young guards (Castle/Harper), and while it may seem expensive now, it doesn't really mess anything up in terms of their longterm future. This is the benefit of having a young as shit roster who are all on rookie contracts. It's no different than what we saw from OKC before their core all for their first max extensions. When you are paying your best players peanuts, it allows you to do stuff like this. 

It's a little interesting that the extension was backloaded, but for all we know, he gets flipped by the time things truly get out of hand. That's what makes this new CBA world so uncertain at the moment, because on the surface it feels unlikely that these super high priced contracts get moved, but since teams don't really have leverage and have to pay these types of salaries, something's going to have to give. Do trades happen? Do we see a continuing trend of expensive buyouts/stretches? Time will tell.

But what I do know is that you pay the price now and then figure out everything else later. Now that the Spurs are in Year 3 of Wemby, it's time to actually win. Get into the 40s and make the Play In. Show some sort of progress in terms of wins and losses. We can talk about how Wemby is a generational talent and all that, but at some point this needs to start translating to wins. A lot of people think the Spurs can be a sleeper this year, and to do that you have to ya know….actually win some games.

That's why in the short term, getting something like this done with Fox is important. It eliminates any potential drama or uncertainty heading into what is an important season, and you let future you worry about the salary cap in 2-3 years. 

With all this stuff, you have to get over the total dollar amount and yearly salary amount. Things are getting insane as the cap continues to go up. What matters more is the percentage of the cap, and for the time being, there's nothing wrong with Fox being a 30% player. He's not perfect, but it's not like he sucks. I'd argue not paying him potentially does more harm than forking over the guaranteed cash, but with this extension comes heightened expectations.

The Spurs are trying to graduate from "fun potential young team" to a real threat in the West, and a big part of that rise is going to come down to Fox living up to this extension. Good luck!