Veteran Spurs guard on the move

Veteran Spurs guard Devonte' Graham and a second-round draft pick are being traded to the Hornets, one of his former teams, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Graham won’t be back in Charlotte for long, though. Woj notes that the Hornets plan to waive Graham, making him an unrestricted free agent.

The 6-foot-1 Kansas alum, 29, played sparingly with the Spurs last season, averaging just 5.0 points on a .352/.301/.813 slash line. He appeared in just 23 contests, logging 13.6 minutes per.

Graham kicked off his NBA career with the Hornets, for whom he played from 2018-21. He spent 2021-22 and part of 2022-23 with the New Orleans Pelicans before being traded to San Antonio midway through that season. During his best year, 2019-20, Graham finished fifth in Most Improved Player voting, averaging 18.2 points, 7.5 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.0 steals a night.

Per cap expert Yossi Gozlan, this will give San Antonio some salary relief in ditching Devonte’s $2.85M partially guaranteed deal for 2024-25. The team will now have $19.1M in cap space.

As Gozlan notes, the Spurs could theoretically take back the mid-sized contract of a veteran wing like Harrison Barnes or Kevin Huerter to help orchestrate a three-team sign-and-trade with the Bulls and Kings to send All-Star wing DeMar DeRozan to Sacramento.