Stunning trade news out of San Antonio
04/01/2025 09:00 AM
The Spurs are kicking off the NBA's quest to go global.
In news that shocked the NBA world and the country of France, the Spurs announced today that they have traded Victor Wembanyama for the New Orleans Pelicans. Note the distinction — not TO the New Orleans Pelicans, FOR the New Orleans Pelicans. In essence, in exchange for one player, the Spurs will be receiving the entire New Orleans Pelicans roster.
In what is surely related news, the Pelicans announced that for the 2025-26 season, and presumably longer, they will play half of their home games in Paris, France. As a result, the Pelicans will be playing both near the French Quarter in New Orleans and in an actual French Quarter in France. For the games in France, the team will be known as the "Pelicans" because the French word for Pelican is "Pelican".
It appears that Wembanyama was consulted on this move before it happened. When I contacted him after the announcement, Victor asked me to convey his sincere appreciation to the entire Spurs organization for their support during his short stay in San Antonio, and to especially thank them for allowing him to be part of the first bi-continental team in all of sports. Victor also said that he will work hard recruiting his teammates from the French National team. As a reminder, Victor and his countrymen won the silver medal in last summer's Olympic Games, which also took place in France.
The NBA has already approved the trade and waived salary cap considerations based on the Spurs' commitment to trade or release enough existing Spurs players or ex-Pelican players to get under the cap before the start of next season. The NBA's willingness to go along with the transaction surely reflects the league's oft-stated desire to expand its market outside of the USA and Canada. Indeed, Adam Silver announced last week the league's intent to expand to Europe, and this seems to be the first step in that process.
Inside sources indicate that the transaction began with the Pelicans asking whether the Spurs would consider a trade for Wembanyama centered around Zion Williamson. The Spurs apparently responded with something like, "Very funny. I assume you mean Zion and the rest of the team", to which Pelicans responded with "Sure, OK, why not?" The Pelicans surely see Wembanyama as the type of player to build a team around, even if that means building the remainder of the team totally from scratch. With only one player on their roster today, the Pelicans certainly have plenty of room under the salary cap. They presumably also hope the Paris location for half their "home" games will be attractive to players and their free-spending wives and girlfriends. (Note to self: Should that be wives or girlfriends?) Of course, purchases made in France will avoid the higher prices resulting from any tariffs, an added bonus both for Pelican players and the other NBA teams playing against "Le Pelicans" in France.
From the Spurs' standpoint, they know they will receive the same sort of backlash that accompanied the recent trade of Luca Doncic to the Lakers. But the Spurs receive much more in this exchange than the Mavs got for Doncic. The Spurs get the entire Pelicans roster as opposed to the Mavs' "haul" – FI-AD (Frequently Injured Antony Davis), Doug Christie's son and draft picks. The Spurs apparently concluded that the ability to merge two rosters into one will allow the creation of an immediate contender, perhaps this season, and for years to come. For instance, the Spurs could add Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy to their starting line-up for tonight's game against Orlando and tomorrow's against Denver – surely scaring the hell out of both of those playoff contenders. Could the addition of the Pelicans' roster allow the Spurs to make a late-run to the Play-In Tourney? If so, the Spurs will become the Team That No One Wants to Play, even as the 10th seed.
Even if this does not propel the Spurs into this season's playoffs, many of the players on the combined roster can become valuable trade bait this summer. The Spurs can make either two for one deals to reduce the number of players on the roster, or take back draft picks from the team acquiring the excess players. For example, the Spurs could presumably get numerous draft picks and/or quality players in exchange for each of Zion, Murphy and C.J. McCullum. Though any team trading for Zion may demand a boatload of H-E-B discount coupons in the deal.
Some may wonder why the Spurs chose to make this announcement on the first anniversary of Wembanyama's message to Spurs' fans last year that he would be returning to France at the end of the 2023-24 season, a story first reported here. If Pounding the Rock readers look at the calendar, they should be able to determine why this announcement is being made today. In fact, I seem to announce similar breaking news every year at this time…
