Wait, HOW much are the Spurs paying De'Aaron Fox moving forward?
Wait, HOW much are the Spurs paying De'Aaron Fox moving forward?
Robert Zeglinski, For The WinSun, June 14, 2026 at 6:05 PM UTC
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Wait, HOW much are the Spurs paying De'Aaron Fox moving forward?
Coming off a crushing NBA Finals loss to the New York Knicks, the San Antonio Spurs don't have one unique scapegoat. It doesn't work like that at this level of basketball or of any sport. You make huge plays as a team, you win as a team, you make mistakes as a team, you lose as a team.
But man, phew, does Spurs starting point guard De'Aaron Fox's $221.7 million contract extension from this past August look especially awful right now.
Let me explain. Fox is coming off a postseason where he averaged just over 15 points per game, six assists, and nearly four rebounds with meager 41-29-75 shooting splits. He was arguably the biggest culprit for the Spurs' collapse in Game 4, where he had an ill-advised layup attempt in the closing moments, and in Game 5, where he shot just 3-of-15 from the field. This, after a regular season where he averaged his lowest points (18.6) since his sophomore season with the Sacramento Kings in 2018.
All of this would be more palatable if Fox were being paid like a role player. But he isn't. He's going to be the Spurs' most expensive player, by margin, for the foreseeable future, smack dab in the middle of arguably the biggest championship window they'll ever have with Victor Wembanyama. Fox will incur a $49.5 million salary cap hit on the Spurs' books next season, a $53.4 million hit in 2027-2028, a $57.4 million hit in 2028-2029, and a $61.3 million hit in 2029-2030. On a Spurs team that already has blossoming elite young guards in Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, both of whom are much cheaper and already sort of made Fox unnecessarily redundant.
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In a word: Woof.
To be sure, I don't expect Fox to play nearly as badly for the Spurs as he did this postseason. It's important to remember that despite his age at 28, this was also only his second-ever playoff run in the NBA. He might not have the potential ceiling of guys like Wembanyama, Harper, and Castle, but he should also get better with big-game experience moving forward. He deserves that sort of grace as much.
With that said, it's still really challenging not to view Fox's contract as a rusty anchor that could hold the Wembanyama Spurs back from true championship contention. Paying a guy who might be the fourth-best player on your roster, at best, more than double what almost everyone else makes is not a sustainable setup. That's besides the point of the other three guys not being cheap forever. Even if Fox plays markedly better, which I expect him to, his contract is the kind of deal that makes consistently competing for championships that much harder.
Put another way, the Wembanyama Spurs seemed inevitable before their first NBA Finals loss. Now, Fox's unreasonable contract might, at least in some way, nerf part of what once looked like a clearly incredible ceiling for one of the NBA's youngest teams.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: De'Aaron Fox's Spurs contract extension kicks in after awful NBA Finals
Source: “AOL Sports”
