San Antonio Spurs wing DeMar DeRozan will decline his player option for the 2020-21 season if he and the Spurs can’t come to agreement on an extension, per Yahoo! Sports’ Chris Haynes.
DeRozan is having a solid second season with San Antonio, as he’s averaging 22.2 points per game on a career-high field goal percentage of 52.6%.
If DeRozan does become a free agent, he’ll be one of the best players available this summer. It’s a fairly non-descript free agent class, meaning a career 20-points per game scorer will have considerable value.
This summer only six teams currently project to have cap space. Of those six teams, only the Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks expected to have enough space to offer DeRozan as much or more than the $27.7 million option he would be declining.
DeRozan will be 31 at the start of next season and entering his twelfth NBA season. For a team like Detroit, who still has Blake Griffin under contract, DeRozan could make sense as a win-now addition. The Knicks have long-liked DeRozan and may see him as a path back to the postseason for the first time since 2013.
