Doug McDermott is signing a three-year, $42 million contract with the San Antonio Spurs, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. McDermott had spent the past three seasons with the Indiana Pacers after signing with them in 2018 free agency. Now, he will join a Spurs team that sorely needs his skillset as it attempts to retool and make its way back into the postseason.
San Antonio attempted the fewest 3-pointers in the NBA last season at 28.4 per game. That has been a relatively frequent feature of the Spurs offense as Gregg Popovich has favored a mid-range attack built around DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge. But Aldridge is now retired and DeRozan is a free agent. McDermott, in theory, is an attempt to modernize the supporting system around young ball-handlers Dejounte Murray, Derrick White, Lonnie Walker and Keldon Johnson.
McDermott is one of the very best shooters in the NBA. He has hit 40.7 percent of his long-range attempts in his career, but last season, he started to add to his game by shooting a career-best 64.1 percent on 2-pointers and hauling in a career-high 3.3 rebounds per game. If McDermott can continue to pair that shooting with a more diverse all-around game, this could be a very good deal for the Spurs.
The Spurs still have significant flexibility to either add more free agents or retain some of their own. With DeMar DeRozan, Patty Mills and Rudy Gay on the open market, the Spurs can significantly reshape their roster this offseason.
