It’s NBA salary cap circumvention … but not as we know it.

Wemby’s decision to take a 25% max instead of the 30% max deal that he was eligible for is a magnanimous gesture, showing that the Frenchman is focused on team building as much as personal financial gain. His deal will allow the Spurs more room to build around him in the short term as well as extra space for eventual extensions for Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper.

The NBA currently rewards veteran players with higher maximum extensions available to them, based on tenure. These deals often see veteran All-Star caliber players playing out the back ends of those deals as they begin to regress, making them often extremely overpaid.

We’ve seen these types of deals on too many occasions to count and they freak out NBA front offices. We’ve seen Jaylen Brown traded, in part, because of how his deal might age. This writer suggested that Donovan Mitchell may be next. Even the Spurs aren’t immune, with De’Aaron Fox expected to be sacrificed in the next year or two.

You can’t teach tall, so assuming he avoids injury, Wembanyama’s defense should age superbly. That said, he’ll still be a lesser player aged 34 than he is at 24, while likely making exponentially more money. In effect, Wemby will be making a sacrifice on his current contract but expects to be able to make up that money at the back end of his career.

Wembanyama made a choice. So did Gary Trent. Yes, one is a tentpole star, the other a role player, however both have sacrificed money in the present. Trent is making that up with this latest deal. Wemby will more than likely make up his sacrifice at the back end of his prime (admittedly, more than a decade away). Both have left money on the table for the promise of future reward.

Why then, is one seen as circumvention but not the other?

Under the current CBA rules, Wembanyama’s deal doesn’t technically full under circumvention. But what is circumvention, exactly? Is it not the manipulation of the salary cap in order to gain a competitive advantage? The Bucks clearly did that with Trent. Are the Spurs and Wemby not engaging in the same activity, albeit at the other end of the financial spectrum?

Neither of these deals have been made off the books, like Leonard’s alleged extra payments. Rather, both of these deals are creative negotiating. Yet one team is likely to be punished, the other praised.

It doesn’t add up.