Have the San Antonio Spurs been a cheap ball club when it comes to their recent payroll?

Have the San Antonio Spurs been a cheap ball club when it comes to their recent payroll? The details of what one means when we say cheap matter quite a bit with San Antonio. As a team that has been rebuilding for a few seasons now, there has been little reason to invest in expensive players who do not mesh with the timeline of an organization in the midst of a reset.

So if we mean “cheap” as in “doesn’t cost a lot,” that’s a fair assessment. But if we mean the sort of franchise that habitually under-invests in their roster when they could be a contending team, history before the rebuild suggests that isn’t entirely fair of a frame for the Spurs.

And Bleacher Report cap expert Eric Pincus agrees, as he wrote in a full-league analysis on the state of spending in the NBA recently. “The rebuild hasn’t been pretty, but it yielded Victor Wembanyama,” he notes. “It may take some time for San Antonio to flesh out an expensive roster around him capable of winning at the highest level.”

“Maybe (San Antonio is) the best argument for context on the list, as the Spurs haven’t had a reason to spend lavishly in recent years,” Pincus adds.

“San Antonio paid tax twice during the 2011 CBA, but that’s outside of the current scope (spoiler: many current non-payers were also non-payers for those six additional years).”

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