Does this trade make sense for the San Antonio Spurs?

Adding John Collins is very advantageous to the San Antonio Spurs, but doing so at the expense of Derrick White could be a deal-breaker for them. Through his first four years in the league, White has constantly improved as a combo-guard next to Dejounte Murray in San Antonio’s backcourt. 

As a result, they signed him to a four-year, $73M extension back in December of 2020. The Spurs obviously have high hopes that White can take over as one of their primary scoring options moving forward, but trading him away would set San Antonio back. 

John Collins is an excellent player and could do wonders at the power-forward position for the Spurs, but he is not a pure scorer like Derrick White can be. Collins is a fantastic complementary player with a guy like Trae Young, but the Spurs do not have this kind of All-Star player on their roster without DeMar DeRozan. 

San Antonio is in a very awkward position right now because they do have some talented young players, but this organization is not close to being a championship contender. They can potentially be a playoff team over the next few seasons, but their ceiling right now is nothing more than a first-round playoff team. That’s why they are an organization to watch closely in NBA trade rumors this offseason.

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Finding ways to continue to build their young core and add more talent to their roster is a must, which is wh going after Collins in free agency makes a lot more sense than doing a sign-and-trade for him. Giving up Derrick White makes no sense, which is why the Spurs would not do this deal for Collins.