{"id":806416,"date":"2026-07-17T16:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/806416\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T16:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:16:10","slug":"what-im-hearing-about-deaaron-foxs-spurs-future-keldon-johnsons-status-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/806416\/","title":{"rendered":"What I\u2019m hearing about De\u2019Aaron Fox\u2019s Spurs future, Keldon Johnson\u2019s status and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the calendar turns to mid-July, the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 roster is nearly set. Forward Tobias Harris is the most significant addition, while the re-signing of reserve guard Jordan McLaughlin ensures the Spurs will retain their entire backcourt from last season.<\/p>\n

That includes De\u2019Aaron Fox, the 28-year-old All-Star guard who struggled in the five-game NBA Finals loss to the New York Knicks and is set to begin a four-year maximum extension for approximately $222 million. In light of Dylan Harper\u2019s exciting flashes in his rookie season and second-year man Stephon Castle\u2019s ascension as an offensive hub, there were some flags raised about Fox\u2019s future in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

But at the NBA\u2019s Summer League in Las Vegas, with a little more time to decompress from the tension of the NBA Finals, multiple team and league sources said the Spurs still see Fox as a critical part of the team\u2019s future. Those sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel matters, said the Spurs\u2019 view hasn\u2019t changed since general manager Brian Wright publicly went to bat for Fox in late June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the ultimate faith in De\u2019Aaron and who he is as a player, what he\u2019s been for us and what he means to this team,\u201d Wright said on June 24. \u201cAnd there\u2019s no wavering in that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victor Wembanyama’s top moments of the 2026 postseason<\/p>\n

Fox became the poster child for the Spurs\u2019 struggles against the Knicks. His decision to go for the layup and get blocked at the end of Game 4<\/a>, when San Antonio led by one point with the shot clock off, stood out as the defining blunder of a finals full of them for the Spurs. He averaged just 12.8 points per game in the series while shooting 34.3 percent from the field and 25 percent from 3.<\/p>\n

The Spurs have downplayed Fox\u2019s playoff struggles as a product of playing through an ankle injury and maintain that his real issue was his inability to convert a lot of good looks. After suffering an ankle sprain in the second round against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Fox missed the first two games of the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder before returning in Game 3 to play through the injury. While he was able to move fairly well despite the pain, his shooting struggled mightily.<\/p>\n

There is also an understanding, according to those sources, that Fox is not tradeable on his contract at the moment, and rehabbing his value with a good playoff performance next season will be crucial to an inevitable backcourt succession plan. Castle is locked in as a starter, and though the three guards closed games together on occasion, it\u2019s unlikely the Spurs would start all of them unless one of them becomes a knockdown shooter.<\/p>\n

So while Harper showed enough flashes last season to eventually become a starter, it probably won\u2019t happen next season unless Fox is willing to come off the bench.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s next for Harper?<\/p>\n

The Spurs still have high hopes for their young guard. Many scouts, coaches and front office executives were blown away by his paint finishing, point-of-attack defense and overall composure as a 20-year-old on the biggest stage in the NBA Finals. Those sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss players on another team, said Harper proved in the finals that he is on a superstar track.<\/p>\n

Though Fox struggled mightily to finish the postseason, he still has a significant advantage over Castle and Harper in his ability to consistently read the tempo of the game and organize the offense to create good looks beyond the first action. Those skills make Fox vital to the team as the two younger guards build those skills.<\/p>\n

The fact that Victor Wembanyama passed up the chance to receive a supermax contract, in part to make it easier for the Spurs to pay Harper when his rookie contract expires in a few years, certainly helped set the standard that sacrifice is expected across the roster. It\u2019s part of why people familiar with Harper\u2019s thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe team dynamics, acknowledge that he could have to take on a sixth-man role next season.<\/p>\n

What about Keldon Johnson?<\/p>\n

When Harper was asked about being a sixth man last season, he told The Athletic that he saw Keldon Johnson as the sixth man and that he was just one of the bench players. So what\u2019s next for Johnson, who won the 2026 Sixth Man of the Year award?<\/p>\n

While Johnson, 26, is eligible for an extension this summer, scouts and front office personnel from around the league expressed doubt that he will receive one. He is entering the final year of a four-year deal and will make $18 million next season.<\/p>\n

Johnson is still revered as a locker room leader and effort engine, but the team has more competition at the wing than ever with Harris\u2019 addition and Julian Champagnie\u2019s extension<\/a>. Johnson also struggled in the postseason; his shooting took a hit and his barreling-to-the-rim driving style didn\u2019t work against the tremendous frontcourt depth the Spurs faced.<\/p>\n

An update on Jayden Quaintance\u2019s knee<\/p>\n

Quaintance, the first of two first-round picks for the Spurs in June\u2019s draft, underwent surgery on his right knee this week, the team announced.<\/p>\n

Quaintance said in his first news conference on draft night that he needed a follow-up surgery on his meniscus after playing in just four games for Kentucky last season. He and the Spurs did not provide any further details on his timetable or any clarification on whether his surgery would be a partial meniscectomy or a more significant procedure on the knee.<\/p>\n

Multiple teams that evaluated Quaintance before the draft anticipated he would need a surgery that could hold him out for most of his rookie season,\u00a0 league sources told The Athletic. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss players on other teams, said they ranked Quaintance at the bottom of the first round because of that possibility.<\/p>\n

However, one of those sources said Quaintance looked fantastic in his 1-on-0 workout, even if he could not fully extend his injured right leg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the calendar turns to mid-July, the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 roster is nearly set. Forward Tobias Harris is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,10549,85],"class_list":["post-806416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}