1 Spurs player in danger of losing starting job in 2026-27 training camp

October 1, 2026 · Yahoo Sports

1 Spurs player in danger of losing starting job in 2026-27 training camp appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The San Antonio Spurs came oh so close to winning it all last season, so it’s not as if a lack of talent was what brought their downfall. They were in position to win in all five contests of their 2026 NBA Finals clash against the New York Knicks, only for their collective inexperience to rear its ugly head when it mattered the most.

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If there was a silver lining for the Spurs in the aftermath of their five-game series loss to the Knicks in the NBA Finals, it’s that their core is so young and so good already that it’s hard to envision them not making it back to that stage and apply the learnings from the difficult lessons that the Knicks handed out to them.

However, in the NBA, nothing is guaranteed. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook seemed destined to win a championship together, but the Oklahoma City Thunder wouldn’t win an NBA title until 2025 — almost nine years after Durant left the team in free agency.

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This is why there is not much room for sentimentality in the quest for a championship. The Spurs know just how important the contributions of their core 2025-26 pieces are, but there is always room to improve — hence some of their decisions this offseason.

Here is one Spurs player who is in real danger of losing his starting job with the 2026-27 training camp already having begun.

Julian Champagnie might be headed for a bench role

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

The Spurs deserve so much credit for believing in Julian Champagnie when no other team would. They picked him up off of waivers on February 16, 2023 in the middle of their worst campaign in a long time, which set them up to draft Victor Wembanyama with the first overall pick of the 2023 NBA Draft.

Champagnie would then earn a larger role with the team through time. His average minutes per contest would increase year after year in a manner that’s directly proportional to his overall production. His three-point shooting is what stands out. He’s been able to increase his volume and efficiency with each passing year, which is not an easy thing to do considering that he’s already drawing more and more attention from opposing defenses.

It reached the point where Champagnie nailed a starting spot for the Spurs by the middle of the 2025-26 season and didn’t look back, starting 68 out of 82 contests for his team. He ended last season with averages of 11.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per contest while shooting 38.1 percent from deep on over 6.2 attempts per game.

He was even better in the postseason, with Champagnie showing that he’s not just a regular-season merchant. He started all 23 of the Spurs’ playoff games last season and shot nearly 40% from deep (39.6%) in the postseason on nearly seven attempts per game. In five games in the NBA Finals, he even averaged three made threes per contest on over 40% shooting from beyond the arc.

Champagnie emerged as the perfect complementary piece for the Spurs. He was willing to do the dirty work on defense as well; standing at 6-foot-7, he was versatile enough as a defender to make it so that switching wasn’t an issue when he was involved in the action.

The Spurs rewarded Champagnie’s incredible 2025-26 season with a three-year, $45 million contract extension, which seems like a bargain for a marksman of his caliber. It feels like San Antonio stumbled upon the reincarnation of Danny Green, a former champion with the team, although Champagnie has some ground to make up before he even comes close to being the defender Green was in his prime.

But even after the Spurs signed Champagnie to a reasonable contract extension, they pursued Tobias Harris in free agency and signed him to a two-year, $31 million contract. Harris is not the floor-spacer Champagnie is, but he provides more creation off the bounce and gives the team another dimension to work with on offense.

Perhaps in an ideal world, there would be no need for the Spurs to rock the boat. Having Champagnie start the majority of games would make sense too; Champagnie is a low-usage player (15.2% USG last season) and isn’t going to step on anyone’s toes on offense all while always being ready to make open shots.

Meanwhile, Harris, in support of Cade Cunningham over the past two seasons, still had a usage of 17.6% and 18.8%, respectively, in his two seasons in Detroit. His style of play has always been more involved with the ball, and with Wembanyama, Castle, and Fox already needing touches of their own (32.4%, 24.9% and 24.9% USG, respectively, for those three), Champagnie might be a better fit for the starting five.

Harris is a worse three-point shooter on lower volume compared to Champagnie (1.3 3PM on 3.5 3PA last season, for 36.8%), and with that in mind, a bench role might be the better fit for the 34-year-old.

He provides stability for the team on the wings, what with signs of aging catching up with Harrison Barnes and Carter Bryant battling so much inexperience in his first NBA season. Keldon Johnson’s impact was also muted come postseason time. Harris, in 81 career postseason games, is averaging 16.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per contest on 46/34/86 shooting splits, so he brings plenty of experience as well.

At this point, it’s not quite clear how big Harris’ appetite to come off the bench is. Harris has not come off the bench in a single NBA game since the 2015-16 season, and even though he’s already 34 years of age, he may have signed with the Spurs with the expectation that he at least gets a starting spot to begin the season.

If Harris were to enter the starting lineup, something has to give. One would think that there are already three nailed-on starters for San Antonio in Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, and De’Aaron Fox. This leaves Champagnie and Devin Vassell as the potential player who may have to come off the bench.

Vassell has come off the bench here and there over the past few seasons, but his level of three-point proficiency is similar to that of Champagnie’s — and he provides more creation off the bounce as well. Moreover, in terms of seniority with the team, Vassell has the edge over Champagnie, as he was with the team from all the way back in the 2020-21 campaign.

No one should be surprised, however, if Champagnie ends up winning back his starting spot by the end of the season. At the very least, he should be part of a few closing lineups for the Spurs this year, if only for the purpose of creating space for the team’s primary scoring options to work with.

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