There have been a lot of big news stories coming out of NBA free agency in the past few hours, but perhaps the largest just emerged.
The San Antonio Spurs have traded Tiago Splitter to the Atlanta Hawks.
Now I know what you’re saying – while Tiago Splitter is a good player, is his trade to the Atlanta Hawks really that big of a story? Yes, actually. Not so much because of the deal but because it’s a rather important salary cap move that could clear the way for the Spurs to sign LaMarcus Aldridge.
The San Antonio Spurs have traded center Tiago Splitter to the Atlanta Hawks, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 1, 2015
Either way, it seems questionable for the Spurs to trade one of their rotational big men without having something in the works, so you have to assume there’s something in the pipeline for the Spurs. Even if it’s not the potential signing of LaMarcus Aldridge, trading away a player like Tiago Splitter isn’t just something you do to relieve some salary cap space.
The move does help ease the burden of the money just shelled out to Danny Green as well, so it appears as if the Spurs are making some big moves for what could be Tim Duncan‘s final season.
The return is currently not known.
