Spurs predicted to cut ties with $229 million nightmare, acquire ex-Rockets All-Rookie guard

The San Antonio Spurs made an emphatic statement this past season by reaching the NBA Finals with one of the league's youngest cores (unfortunately, they couldn’t close out the New York Knicks). 

The five-time NBA champions have a chance to get even better this summer with ideal roster moves that’ll keep them in championship contention in 2026-27 and beyond.

The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie recently crafted a compelling trade idea that would swap the Spurs’ $229 million nightmare point guard for an ex-Houston Rockets All-Rookie guard.

"Here's the team that I think you can very easily make a case for doing this (trading for De’Aaron Fox): Phoenix (Suns),” Vecenie stated on the Game Theory Podcast last Monday. 

“Phoenix probably wants a point guard. I know that they could easily re-sign Colin Gillespie, but Colin Gillespie can be like an elite sixth man in the NBA," "You could pretty easily do something around like Jalen Green, Grayson Allen, or you could do Jalen Green and Royce O'Neale." 

While Fox’s unbelievably bad NBA Finals showing signals it may be time to send him packing, acquiring Green in a trade focused on the two-time All-Star may not be the most effective way to go about it. 

Green has endured significant postseason struggles of his own, shooting poorly against the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the 2025 playoffs and failing to make the crucial late-game plays the Rockets needed to avoid early elimination.

Green averaged 13.3 points per game while shooting 37.2% from the field and 29.5% from beyond the arc in seven games.

While the 24-year-old elevated his scoring in this year’s rendition of the playoffs (21.8 points per game), he proved that he’s still struggling to differentiate between a high-quality shot and a low-percentage shot (he only connected on 38.6% of his field goals and 20.6% of his triples in the Suns’ Western Finals Quarterfinals loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. 

That isn’t to say Green isn’t an immensely talented wing with a positive NBA future; it just highlights the fact that he wouldn’t be the best replacement for Fox in San Antonio at this stage of his career.

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