2. San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are in a bit of a retooling phase for the roster. They saw a lot of veterans leave the team this offseason, as Patty Mills, DeMar DeRozan and Rudy Gay all signed elsewhere in free agency.
The Spurs did sign Doug McDermott and Zach Collins to replace them, but it will be relying a lot on their younger players stepping up in the 2021-22 season. All of those young players are guards or wings, so adding a frontcourt piece in Jalen Smith to develop alongside them would be a smart move.
Smith needs time to develop but there aren’t many teams better suited for that than the Spurs. San Antonio has a long track record of successfully developing players of all types and Smith would be their next project.
With the Spurs committing some time to player development, it would be a great landing spot for Smith. They would present him the chance to get some real NBA minutes without the pressure of being on a team contending for an NBA Championship.
READ MORE: Predictions for Latest NBA Trade Rumors: Simmons, Siakam, Dragic, Lillard
The Spurs know they are not contenders just yet, but if their young core continues developing, they could present some problems for teams around the NBA soon enough.
