San Antonio Spurs playing hardball in DeJuan Blair trade scenarios
By Bryan Rose
The San Antonio Spurs currently hold the rights over restricted free agent DeJuan Blair and are making fellow NBA franchises very aware of it.
Over a dozen teams have expressed interest in the power forward but according to Hoopsworld’s Alex Kennedy, few teams have made any offers the Spurs would deem beneficial and have refused to budge on trading the former Pittsburgh star.
Per Kennedy:
"Over a dozen teams have expressed some level of interest in Blair, but the 24-year-old is hoping to sign a multi-year deal or have the San Antonio Spurs facilitate a sign-and-trade so that he can retain his Bird rights. So far, the Spurs haven’t been very cooperative since they obviously won’t agree to take part in a sign-and-trade that doesn’t benefit them."
Blair has fallen out of favor in San Antonio after averaging 20 plus minutes a game the past two seasons, only contributing 14 minutes a game this year.
The re-signing of Tiago Splitter should make any potential floor time limited, so the Spurs may just be waiting for the right deal to come along.