At the time, trading Jakob Poeltl to the Toronto Raptors felt like a logical rebuild step for the San Antonio Spurs. A steady veteran center moved for draft capital while the franchise recalibrated around youth. Now it looks like a masterclass in long-term planning.
San Antonio turned Poeltl into what became the eighth pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. Instead of locking into that selection, they flipped it to the Minnesota Timberwolves, continuing to stack flexible assets. Eventually, one of those picks became part of the package used to acquire De’Aaron Fox. That is not luck. That is sequencing.
For the San Antonio Spurs from asset to accelerator
Fox is no longer just a scoring guard. In San Antonio, he is the veteran anchor around Victor Wembanyama, Julian Champagnie, Stephon Castle, and the rest of a rising core.
He organizes the offense. He closes games. He shields Wembanyama from early-career pressure while still allowing him to dominate. That balance is why the Spurs are not just competitive but trending toward a deep playoff run. This is no longer a feel-good rebuild. It is a legitimate surge.
The Oklahoma City Thunder benchmark tells the story
If you want proof of how far San Antonio has come, look at the season series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Spurs have handled them confidently. That matters because Oklahoma City represents the gold standard of young, sustainable contention – they are the current champions and want to go back-to-back. Beating them consistently is not accidental. It signals structural growth.
Fox gives the Spurs late-game control. Wembanyama gives them defensive inevitability. The supporting cast plays with clarity instead of chaos. And suddenly, the team that traded away a reliable center is dictating terms to conference contenders.
Asset discipline built this moment for the Spurs
Many teams would have drafted eighth and hoped. The Spurs chose flexibility over attachment. They turned a solid big into draft equity, draft equity into leverage, and leverage into a veteran who accelerates everything. That is how smart front offices compress timelines.
The Poeltl trade was never about subtraction. It was about multiplication. Now, with San Antonio leading the season series against elite competition and pushing toward a serious playoff run, that initial deal looks less like a rebuild footnote and more like the pivot point. And the deeper the Spurs go, the more obvious it becomes. They did not just trade Jakob Poeltl. They engineered their rise.
