Spurs Agree to $31 Million Deal With Tobias Harris. San Antonio’s Ceiling Just Rose.
The San Antonio Spurs are not sitting still after coming up short in the NBA Finals. Fresh off a five-game loss to the New York Knicks, the reigning Western Conference champions have agreed to a two-year, $31 million deal with veteran forward Tobias Harris, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Harris, 33, spent the last two seasons with the Detroit Pistons and was a key contributor to their turnaround. He helped lead Detroit to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference last year, though the Pistons ultimately fell short in the playoffs.
This is a smart signing for San Antonio. Harris is a rock-solid veteran who does not need shots to be effective. He averaged 15.8 points and 6.1 rebounds a game last season, but his real value is in the way he plays inside a system. He moves without the ball, he shoots the corner three, he defends multiple positions, and he does not turn the ball over.
Playing next to Victor Wembanyama is going to unlock the best version of Harris we have seen in years. Wembanyama’s gravity forces defenders to help off shooters. Harris is one of the more reliable spot-up threats in the league. The math on this is obvious.
The Spurs also agreed to a three-year, $45 million deal with forward Julian Champagnie earlier this week. San Antonio is building depth intentionally. With Wembanyama, De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and now Harris and Champagnie, the Spurs have real closing lineup options for the first time since the David Robinson years.
For Harris, this is a career pivot. He has bounced from Milwaukee to Orlando to Detroit to the Clippers to Philadelphia and back to Detroit. He has never quite been the star, always the third or fourth option. In San Antonio, he gets to be exactly that on a Finals contender. That is a role he was born to play.
The Pistons, meanwhile, had to let Harris walk after committing $51 million to John Collins and preparing to match any offer sheet for center Jalen Duren. That is a smart pivot on Detroit’s end, but it also cost them a proven vet.
The Spurs are going to be dangerous in 2026-27. Wembanyama is entering year four and is already the best defensive player in the league. Fox is a top-15 point guard. Castle is a Rookie of the Year candidate coming into last season. Harris is glue. Champagnie is upside.
The pick to watch: Whether the Spurs run it back with the same starting five that got them to the Finals or slide Harris into the closing lineup. Coach Mitch Johnson has options he did not have last year.
The West just got tougher. The Spurs just got deeper. That is the story.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
