Spurs, big man Zach Collins agree to two-year extension

The Spurs and big man Zach Collins have agreed to a two-year contract extension that will be worth $35M, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Collins, who will turn 26 next month, is coming off his healthiest season in four years. Appearing in 63 games (26 starts) for San Antonio in 2022-23, he averaged 11.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 22.9 minutes per game, posting a solid shooting line of .518/.374/.761.

The 10th overall pick in the 2017 draft, Collins flashed some promise early in his career in Portland but saw his career derailed by ankle injuries, which limited him to 11 games in 2019-20 and sidelined him for the entire 2020-21 season.

When Collins signed with the Spurs as a free agent in 2021, he received a three-year, $22M contract, but it was only fully guaranteed for one full season, with a partial guarantee in year two and a non-guaranteed third year. The former Gonzaga standout only played in 28 games in his first season in San Antonio, but 2022-23 was the best season of his career, putting him in position to become part of the team’s future beyond his current contract.

Collins projects to be part of the Spurs’ starting lineup alongside Victor Wembanyama this fall, as the club looks to reduce the wear and tear on its prized rookie by having him play at power forward instead of center.

As Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype observes, San Antonio initially projected to have upwards of $60M in cap room in the summer of 2024, but has now dedicated more than half that space to new contracts for Collins and Devin Vassell, who signed a five-year, $135M rookie scale extension earlier this month.

While the exact terms of Collins’ extension aren’t yet known, it sounds like the Spurs will give him the maximum possible veteran extension for a player earning less than the NBA’s estimated average salary ($11,958,000). The veteran center is eligible to receive a starting salary worth 40% of that figure in his new deal, with an 8% raise in year two — those terms would put him in line to earn approximately $34.82M on the extension after making $7.7M in 2023-24.

Collins’ extension will make him ineligible to be traded for six months, Gozlan notes, so the Spurs won’t be able to move him until the 2024 offseason.

ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Bobby Marks suggested on the latest episode of The Lowe Post podcast that a deal for Collins could be imminent. Lowe advised keeping an eye on the Spurs center as a potential veteran extension candidate, and Marks responded by saying he had heard that rumor “multiple times.”