The San Antonio Spurs have won the offseason, according to many in the basketball world. They have signed arguably the best free agent available in LaMarcus Aldridge, they got David West to turn down almost $11 million to play for them and Manu Ginobili is coming back, but they still aren't done. It is being reported that the Spurs have traded a future second round pick to the Sacramento Kings for backup point guard Ray McCallum, according to ESPN.com.
McCallum's role with the Spurs will likely be very similar to the one Cory Joseph had been playing. Joseph left San Antonio this offseason to join the Toronto Raptors. McCallum will be the third established point guard on the Spurs roster joining Tony Parker, and Patty Mills, both of whom are coming off of injury plagued seasons. McCallum will likely provide depth and will be a bit of a future project for the Spurs, who are typically great at grooming less heralded players.
McCallum is 24 years old and will be entering his third season in the NBA after playing his first two seasons in Sacramento with some success. Overall McCallum had a better second year than he did his rookie year as his shooting percentage went from 38 to 44, but his three point percentage dipped big time in year two from 37 to 31.
Not much was expected out of McCallum coming out of the University of Detroit, as he was drafted in the second round, but his career numbers, albeit in only two years, show that he has a chance to stick in the NBA for a while. You could do much worse than seven points in 20 minutes per game from a young backup point guard.
The Spurs made a low-risk and potential high-reward move here by only giving up a future second round pick that will likely be toward the end of the round. Based on the Spurs' history, this has a chance to be a really good situation for McCallum as he won't have to do too much - but in order for him to be successful in San Antonio he will likely have to get his three-point percentage closer to his rookie season than it was last season.
