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How De'Aaron Fox's contract and Dylan Harper's emergence will leave Spurs no choice originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The New York Knicks are NBA champions. The confetti has barely settled, and the conversation in San Antonio has already shifted to what the Spurs do with De'Aaron Fox this summer.
ESPN analyst and former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins delivered his verdict on Sunday.
"They’re gonna have to find another place for him," Perkins said. "Number 1, he makes too much money. Number 2, he’s getting in the way of Dylan Harper. That spot belongs to Dylan Harper. We saw last night and throughout the course of this series that he [Harper] was their most consistent offensive player on that team. Dylan Harper is just that dude, and there are three guys that I’m looking at on the San Antonio Spurs that are untouchable: Wemby, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper. The rest of the roster needs to be re-evaluated."
Perkins had earlier in the Finals pushed back against Fox criticism, suggesting the blame was being overstated. After Game 5 and the Spurs' series loss, his position hardened. The full-series view changed the calculus.
Fox averaged 12.8 points per game in the Finals on 34.3 percent shooting, the fourth-best scoring average on his own team.
In Game 4, with the Spurs holding a late lead, he attempted a contested layup instead of securing the ball and was blocked by OG Anunoby, and the Knicks scored the game-winning basket immediately after. The moment became the defining image of his Finals performance.
What Dylan Harper showed and why the contract situation forces the Spurs' hand
Harper, the rookie selected second overall in the 2025 NBA Draft, was San Antonio's most consistent offensive presence throughout the playoff run.
ESPN's Tim Bontemps reported that an anonymous Western Conference executive said during Game 5 that Harper is San Antonio's second-best player. He remains on a rookie contract. Fox is about to begin a four-year deal worth $228.6 million, with his 2026-27 salary of $51 million making him one of the highest-paid guards in the league.
The math is what makes Perkins' argument hard to dismiss. Fox's contract kicks in while Harper and Stephon Castle are still on team-friendly rookie deals, which means paying $51 million annually for a player who struggled in the biggest games of the season while two younger, cheaper options outperformed him.
Charles Barkley pushed for Mitch Johnson to bench Fox during Game 5 in real time. CBS Sports' Sam Quinn proposed a trade to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a package centered on Naz Reid.
Fox told reporters after Game 5 that the Spurs would build from this experience and return better. That may well be true. But with Victor Wembanyama, Harper, and Castle all locked in and ascending, the question San Antonio is navigating this summer is whether Fox's role gets defined differently, or whether the decision gets made for them in a trade.
The core is obviously there, the only complication is the contract.
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