Maybe it is; maybe it isn't. It's tough to know what the Spurs front office is thinking. The Mavericks tried to "speed up" their timeline to accommodate how ready Luka Doncic was from day one, and they didn't really do themselves many favors from an asset management standpoint. They had to hop on Kyrie Irving's roller coaster in order to position themselves for immediate success. I'll concede that the Irving gamble has worked out quite well for them, but it's easy to forget how much of a risk that was at the time. If Irving remained an unreliable presence on the court, the Mavericks might have just blown their long-term future with Doncic.
The Spurs, on the other hand, are a much more conservative organization than the Mark Cuban-led Mavericks. I would imagine they don't mind falling in the standings enough to miss the play-in so they can take another shot in the first round at grabbing a real contributor to add to their young team. And if they don't like what they see in the draft, they can always examine the trade market in the off-season, when they'll have greater flexibility. Fox himself might still be there on the block at that time. There really is no rush for them, as much as the Twitterati like to pretend that they must win now, in Wemby's second year, or risk losing him forever. Eh. He's cost-controlled. He'll extend with them. They have time. They can't screw around, of course, but I'll be curious to see if they simply elect to be patient and methodical, as they usually are.
