The San Antonio Spurs have been building around Victor Wembanyama through trades and draft picks. They signed De’Aaron Fox in February last season and then drafted Dylan Harper as no. 2 in the 2025 draft. They also have a good and promising young players in Stephon Castle and Julian Champagnie and veterans like Luke Kornet and Harrison Barnes.
Are they ready to contend next season? Some critics think their shooting is still suspect and so, they should trade for one that will address that.
Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo! Sports sees Lauri Markkanen of the Utah Jazz as a great fit for the Spurs because of his dynamic offensive weapon.
“Lauri Markkanen is one of the types of guys that if I’m the Spurs, I’m like, ‘Yes, sign me up. Bring me Lauri Markkanen.’ Because of the shooting ability and everything he does on ball, off ball, motion, movement, passing,” O’Connor said.
“Like Lauri Markkanen fits anywhere, and he brings exactly what the Spurs need with his shooting ability in the front court, so that’s where I kind of come down with. I think they need to trade in part because of the lack of shooting.”
The Spurs recently signed Jordan McLaughlin and he is expected to become their designated shooter from the bench. The team also got veteran Kelly Olynyk for more bench depth.
San Antonio Spurs’ chance on Lauri Markkanen
Markkanen is coming off a superb performance in EuroBasket 2025 where he led his team Finland to a fourth place finish. He was the tournament’s fourth best scorer with 23.6 points per game.
He averaged 19 points per game last season on 34.6 percent shooting, 42.3 percent overall on the floor.
Spurs have the trade assets to acquire him. They still have first round draft picks and maybe they can include Jeremy Sochan and/or Keldon Johnson in the package.
Question now is if the Jazz will take the offer? A Jazz official earlier said that they would still love to have the Finnish forward back.
“We hope it will be a long one. Seriously, we love Lauri. He’s been great since getting here, and nothing will change with that. He understands what we’re doing and how this team is building. He’s ready to get back here and to get back to work for next season,” the exec said in an interview with Spotrac’s Keith Smith.
The team is still in rebuilding mode and with Markkanen already 28 years old, they are expected to lean towards rebuilding around their fifth pick Ace Bailey.
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