Even With Season On Hold, Austin Spurs Roster Grows With Two-Way Contracts

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Austin Spurs

The 2020-2021 Austin Spurs are starting to take shape, slowly but surely.

On Sunday evening, Project Spurs shared the news of the signing of former Big Ten Player of the Year, Keita Bates-Diop, to a two-way contract, originally reported by Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo! NBA.

With this news, the San Antonio Spurs have presumably filled both of their open two-way contracts for the coming season. Adrian Wojnarowski reported earlier on Sunday that the Spurs had signed guard Quinndary Weatherspoon to the other two-way contract. Quinndary was on a one-year two-way contract this last season after being selected in the second round of the 2019 NBA Draft by the Spurs.

My colleague Paul Garcia did a great write-up on the Bates-Diop signing that’s worth checking out. From the article, here’s the overview on the new Spur:

“Last season with Minnesota and Denver, the 6’8″ Bates-Diop averaged 6.5 points and 2.9 rebounds in 44 total games. He attempted 2.3 three-pointers per game and made 33% of those attempts.”

The silver and black will be Keita’s third organization in as many seasons, previously with the Denver Nuggets where he was assigned to the Bull’s G-League affiliate, Windy City Bulls, after being drafted by the Timberwolves in the second round in 2018.

Per the NBA and G-League parameters, “NBA teams may have up to two players under NBA Two-Way Contracts who will spend the bulk of the season in the NBA G League and not more than 45 days with their NBA team. Two-Way players are paid a corresponding daily amount based on the number of days they play in each league.”

This means that should the G-League season happen, which should be almost certain as I discussed with John and Michael of Project Spurs on the latest Forever Toros podcast episode, the Austin Spurs know two players that will be on the court in the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park. Who will be joining them?

Cam Reynolds was recently signed by the Spurs to an Exhibit 10 contract, which California’s KNBR recently explained, is structured as, “a non-guaranteed one-year, minimum salary pact that allows a player to make a bonus of up to $50K if he is waived and remains on the franchise’s G League squad for at least 60 days.”

Reynolds, a guard/forward, would be eligible to sign with the Bucks, Timberwolves or Kings, as well as the Spurs, should he be waived in the aforementioned process. The financial incentive, of course, would be with him signing with Austin.

As for the rest of the roster, we’ll wait to see how it takes shape with the NBA season just a month away. No reports have been made to confirm or deny a G-League season in 2021 at this moment, but one would think that Jordan Green and Jeff Ledbetter, two Austin veteran mainstays, would be back in the 512.

 

It’s a little disappointing to see none of the guys that I would’ve given two-way contracts to as I wrote back in August, but I thought Quinndary and Drew Eubanks, both had earned full contracts with the Spurs. The team apparently agreed with me on Drew when they signed him to a three-year deal to San Antonio, but was, fortunately, able to at least work out another two-way deal with Q’s representation.

Should Quinndary and Keita take the court in Austin this season, they’ll be under the leadership of Matt Nielsen who was promoted from his assistant role with the G-League team this year after Coach Ahearn was hired away by the Memphis Grizzlies earlier this summer.

I’ll be reporting back here with more signings as they come about for the Austin Spurs. Is there someone you’d like to see? What do you think about the two-way contract signings? Let me know in the comments below, or on Twittter @JarkClonas and through @ProjectSpurs.

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