NBA rumors: Spurs overpay young player due to small sample size

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Spurs have signed Devin Vassell to a long-term extension.

The deal is reportedly worth $146 million over the next five years.

Vassell is a very great young in the league and will be crucial for a successful first season with Victor Wembanyama.

In his 35 games for the Spurs last season, he averaged 18 points per game on very decent shooting. He showcased himself as a rising wing in the league during his limited time last season. He is one of the reasons that the team may be better than expected.

The big question around this extension is the price tag. While like everyone else, I am in favor of people lining their pockets as much as they can, a max-ish deal sounds kind of risky for San Antonio.

How can Devin Vassell prove he is worth the extension from the Spurs?

This season the wing doesn't have to do much more than he did last season. In fact, if he were to average 18 points per game over 82-ish games again, the Spurs would probably be over the moon with his progress. He does have to prove that he is very complimentary to Wembanyama. For now, he has to be able to score off the No. 1 pick's offensive presence and attention that he is given by teams.

Later on in the deal, Vassell has to be a second All-Star or a third-team All-NBA type player for the Spurs to get their value. This could happen but San Antonio could have waited until the offseason to get this kind of deal done. At the end of the day, the Spurs have tons of cap space to use so it makes sense to overpay the player if they believe that he can make the jump later.

Before this deal, the Spurs have only used $70 million dollars in cap space and that number will go down as Devonte Graham is moved sometime in the future.