The San Antonio Spurs were the biggest winners of the 2023 offseason, winning the lottery and having the right to select Victor Wembanyama first overall in the 2023 NBA Draft. Now, they are putting in the work to fill out the roster around him.
The latest addition is their big man, Zach Collins. He and the Spurs agreed to a two-year, $35 million extension per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, via his agent Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports over the weekend.
The extension will keep Collins under contract for a total of three seasons, as he is playing out the final year of his current deal this season. This is a major signing for the Spurs, as Collins will likely be playing as the enforcer alongside Wmebanyama in the frontcourt.
It is hard to feel anything but good for Collins, whose career was seemingly in jeopardy early on. He dealt with a myriad of ankle issues that ended up costing him all but 11 games in the 2019-20 season and the entire 2020-21 campaign.
With San Antonio, he has gotten his career back on track and has been able to remain relatively healthy. Last season he appeared in 63 games, making 26 starts, averaging 11.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 22.9 minutes per game.
Collins had immense potential, which led to the Portland Trail Blazers selecting him No. 10 overall in the 2017 NBA Draft. Injuries kept him from realizing it with the Trail Blazers, but the Spurs are now seeing it firsthand as the versatility has been on full display.
His extension is the third one that the Spurs have worked out this offseason. He joins Devin Vassell and Tre Jones as building blocks on the supporting cast around Wembanyama. Keldon Johnson signed an extension last offseason, as San Antonio’s plans for the future are being laid out in front of us.
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