Built And Bought: Questions Remain after Spurs’ Big Summer

by Caleb Saenz

For perhaps the first time in franchise history, the San Antonio Spurs have dominated a free agency period. After contorting themselves through the economic labyrinth of the league’s current collective bargaining agreement, the Spurs are nearly done creating what is arguably their deepest roster ever. The level of talent in their big man rotation alone is preposterous, with LaMarcus Aldridge now backed by David West, the very player many viewed as their fallback had Aldridge gone with another team.

For years, the Spurs have put together championship rosters around their Big Three, putting role players in positions to excel as they supported the team’s stars. And in fact the last time they made a big summer splash, Richard Jefferson joined the team in a move that only worked out when the team wanted him gone badly enough to trade into drafting Kawhi Leonard. Historically speaking, the Spurs don’t really do free agency.

So it’s not very surprising, then, that people are finding it difficult to reconcile the Spurs’ blockbuster summer with the team’s usual approach to roster construction. There are those who have focused on David West’s massive pay cut, arguing that his decision to leave for title contention only highlights the injustice of a system catering to billionaire owners. Danny Green’s decision to take a hometown discount has also irked some for similar reasons. But the loudest voices have undoubtedly come from people shaming a fanbase that has spent the better part of a decade rallying around an imaginary “Built Not Bought” banner.

The Spurs, you might have heard, aren’t like other teams. They spend time other franchises don’t poring over names you can’t pronounce from countries you’ve never heard of, uncovering diamonds in the roughest of roughs. And when they’ve turned their piercing gaze stateside, they’ve dug through the trash heap to dust off the downtrodden and turn them into darlings. Where other teams have it easy, throwing cash out of helicopters at spoiled superstars, the Spurs have used every penny in the franchise’s coin purse to cobble together a huddled mass yearning to compete. That they’ve managed to spoil the plans of the rich and pompous is only a confirmation that in their world, justice reigns supreme.

This is, of course, complete and utter nonsense. The Spurs have done an excellent job uncovering foreign players and developing overlooked talent. They really are – by just about any measure imaginable – the league’s model franchise. But make no mistake: if throwing cash out of helicopters was an option, they would have the best pilot available running the NBA’s most efficient cash delivering operation. That’s just who they are. The Spurs take what’s feasible and plan accordingly.

There’s a lot to hate about the“Built Not Bought” drivel – which, it should be said, the team has never adopted as official branding. But what makes that phrase particularly unhelpful is that it glosses over how much of a risk-taking franchise San Antonio really is. Roster construction is always a perilous endeavor, regardless of method or approach, and the Spurs have never shied away from opportunities to roll the dice.

LaMarcus Aldridge and David West are phenomenal players whose skill sets should mesh well. But the Spurs were already a great team. They’ve undoubtedly sacrificed continuity, one of their greatest strengths, to create something new. The moves should work, but, well, they might not. The same team that moved to bring aboard Aldridge and West also acquired Richard Jefferson, brought back Stephen Jackson, and took a flyer on an overweight and unhappy Boris Diaw.

The NBA is a league defined by risks. On the base level, every contract is a risk, as career-altering injuries happen without warning. Beyond that, new players alter chemistry in unforeseen ways, as they shift to adapt to a coach’s pressure and a franchise’s culture. The most recent example of a super team, the LeBron era Heat, took months to gel, time the Spurs might not have with an aging Tim Duncan. San Antonio is not immune to the unpredictable tremors that alter the landscape of the NBA.

The worst part about the “Built Not Bought” myth, though, is that it perpetuates the belief that smart teams don’t take risks. It sells the lie that the Spurs’ success has only happened because they are operating on a different plane altogether, each move in the path that took them here one guaranteed to pay dividends. The truth is that both sides of the “Built Not Bought” false dichotomy are on to something. The Spurs have toiled to build a culture and a plan to maintain it, but they’ve always needed to pay for the people who make it possible.

Patience and dedication and luck have afforded the Spurs the opportunity to capitalize on a summer of league-wide uncertainty, and they’ve become something new: built and bought. After years spent constructing the perfect plan, the Spurs haven’t hesitated in pushing all their chips to the center of the table. It’s the kind of risk the smart teams get to take.