The San Antonio Spurs will enter this year’s free agency period with about $9-10 million to spend as part of the non-taxpayer Mid-Level Exception unless they make some sort of trade that frees up more cap space before July 1st (ahem, Patty Mills).
We’ve discussed the potential unrestricted free agents that the Spurs could target with that Mid-Level Exception, but we haven’t talked much about the restricted market yet this offseason.
The restricted free agent market can be a good way to add young talent, but it is often a difficult market to navigate.
The team that holds the restricted free agents rights has the opportunity to match any offer made by another team, and they can wait a few days before they decide to match so the team trying to sign away that restricted free agent has their money tied up while unrestricted free agents are flying off of the board.