With DeRozan, Mills and Gay all gone, Spurs’ rebuild hits full throttle – San Antonio Express-News
The departures came fast and furious Tuesday, one after another, the Spurs’ old guard leading one final fast break out of town.
Adios to DeMar DeRozan, a consummate professional who gave the Spurs three good seasons after his undesired trade from Toronto in 2018.
Sayonara to Patty Mills, who over the past decade morphed from little-used, towel-waving benchwarmer to proud torchbearer for Spurs culture.
Adieu to Rudy Gay, who revived his injury-marred NBA career in San Antonio and over four seasons became one of the most respected voices in the locker room.
By the time the head-spinning veteran exodus was over, it was enough to make you wonder whether the Coyote might next be shipped to Sacramento.
DeRozan, 31, was sent to Chicago in a sign-and-trade deal that will net him a three-year, $85 million contract.
“I want to take the time to thank the Spurs organization and the fans in San Antonio for embracing me the way that they have over the past 3 seasons,” DeRozan tweeted Tuesday night. “The Spurs lived up to their reputation as one of the classiest organizations in the league during my time with the team. I’m grateful for the times I shared with my teammates, our coaches and staff. THANK YOU!”
In return, the Spurs are expected to receive a pair of veteran forwards — 33-year-old Thaddeus Young and 30-year-old Al Faroqu-Aminu — as well as the Bulls’ 2025 first-round pick and a second-round pick in 2022 that originally belonged to the Los Angeles Lakers.
The trade agreement marked the capstone on a Tuesday teardown that saw the Spurs part ways with their leading scorer (DeRozan), their longest-tenured player (Mills) and their oldest (Gay).
The Spurs’ youth movement is officially a go.
Mills, 32, is bound for Brooklyn to join Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Blake Griffin in a championship chase. His deal with the Nets is for two years and $12 million.
Rudy Gay, a solid contributor off the bench and locker-room presence, has agreed to a two-year deal with the Jazz.
Ronald Cortes /Contributor
The 34-year-old Gay, meanwhile, next heads to Utah, where he should provide veteran moxie to a playoff-tested Jazz squad that ended the 2020-21 season with the NBA’s top record.
The Spurs won’t be the same without any of them.
Having joined the Spurs in March of 2012, Mills soon became as ingrained in the team’s locker room as he was in the San Antonio community.
He represented the last remaining link to the Spurs’ championship era as part of the 2014 title team.
Patty Mills led the Spurs in 3-point shooting in 2021.
Mills is one of only 10 players in Spurs history to have logged at least 700 games with the team. His 5,516 points off the bench are the second-most in club annals behind Manu Ginobili.
His 1,046 3-pointers off the bench are the most in NBA history with one team.
With Mills off to Brooklyn, the designation as the Spurs’ longest-tenured player belongs to 24-year-old point guard Dejounte Murray, who was drafted in 2016.
Gay signed with the Spurs in the summer of 2017, months removed from suffering a torn Achilles tendon while playing for Sacramento.
A star scorer in his younger days, Gay molded himself into a role player and mentor in San Antonio. He averaged 11.9 points and 5.6 rebounds, and became a key veteran presence on a Spurs roster that became younger by the season.
When LaMarcus Aldridge left the team after the All-Star break last season, Gay became the Spurs’ eldest statesman.
Now Gay is gone, too.
“Man, what a ride,” Gay wrote Tuesday night on Instagram. “Shout out to my Spurs family and to the city of San Antonio. The past years have been an unforgettable journey & I enjoyed every moment. Thank you to everyone who’s been part of it. Excited for what’s next!”
DeRozan arrived in the difficult summer of 2018, with disgruntled All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard forcing the Spurs’ hand on a trade to anywhere but here.
Having spent his first NBA seasons in Toronto, and becoming as locally beloved as any Raptors player in history, DeRozan hoped to finish his career there.
The trade to San Antonio, in exchange for Leonard, was not one he asked for.
Yet for three seasons DeRozan showed up night in and night out for the Spurs, giving their young roster something approximating a star. He averaged 21.6 points during his Spurs tenure, while boosting his assist numbers to a career-best 6.9 last season.
With DeRozan as their go-to scorer, the Spurs missed the playoffs in each of the past two seasons. In 2018-19, DeRozan’s first with the club, the Spurs lost to Denver in seven games in the first round.
Now DeRozan is off to Chicago to join a rebuilding project that is already a little further down the line. The Bulls’ roster already boasts a pair of 2021 All-Stars in Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic.
The Spurs, meanwhile, appear prepared to turn the present over to a fresh-faced core that includes Murray, 22-year-old up-and-comer Keldon Johnson, 27-year-old Derrick White, 25-year-old Jakob Poeltl, 22-year-old Lonnie Walker IV, and 20-year-old Devin Vassell.
Last week, the Spurs made Josh Primo, an 18-year-old guard out of Alabama, the youngest draft pick in club history.
Had the Spurs not brought back a pair of 30-somethings in the DeRozan deal with Chicago, the oldest player on the roster would have been 29-year-old Doug McDermott, who agreed to a three-year deal Monday.
Young and Aminu are both proven veterans who had been on the Spurs’ radar for over a decade.
The hard-nosed Young averaged 16.1 points and 6.2 rebounds in 68 games for the Bulls last season, with 23 starts. He should help round out a thin Spurs frontcourt.
The explosive Aminu appeared in only 23 games last season split between Orlando and Chicago, his season interrupted in November by a torn meniscus in his right knee.
For the Spurs, however, Tuesday was not about new arrivals as much as it was about new beginnings.
DeRozan, Mills and Gay each left their mark on this Spurs era.
As such, the goodbyes Tuesday also came with a good luck.
To the players who are moving on, and to the franchise that will now look to move on without them.
jmcdonald@express-news.net
Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN