Why This Trade Makes Sense For The San Antonio Spurs

While Mills has long been a key role player for Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs, with him being on the final year of his contract, this may be the end of his tenure with the organization. The Spurs have a lot of young talent in their back-court and with them wanting to focus more on the development of these young players, Mills likely would not be re-signed next offseason by San Antonio.

While they are in the playoff hunt in the Western Conference right now and Mills is a big part of their game plan this season off-the-bench, getting a guy like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope could be more impactful for the Spurs chances of making the playoffs this year. 

San Antonio is not known for being a high-level three-point shooting team, as they rank 15th in the league in three-point shooting percentage, which is why they could greatly benefit from adding a perimeter-oriented threat like KCP. 

Not only is he a 40%+ shooter from three-point range, but Caldwell-Pope knows what it takes to win a championship, which could be valuable since most of the Spurs core is made up of players that do not have much playoff experience. Adding the veteran sharpshooter to be a leader of this team with DeMar DeRozan and Rudy Gay could be beneficial to them, but gaining him at the expense of Patty Mills almost feels like a lateral move for San Antonio. 

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Overall, there is some value in this trade for the Spurs, but it would probably be better long-term for them to keep Patty Mills and let his contract expire at the end of the year. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is locked up contract wise for two more seasons after this year, which is a big reason why keeping Mills is probably better long-term financially.