San Antonio Spurs Reportedly Interested In Real Madrid Star Facundo Campazzo

International superstars have dominated the San Antonio Spurs for the past 23 years. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker carried the torch for most of this, resulting in the organization’s first five titles. A foreign supporting cast has flanked them, whether it was Boris Diaw, Boban Marjanovic, Aron Baynes, Tiago Splitter, Pau Gasol or Patty Mills.

The Spurs are in transition right now, however, after their worst season in over two decades. From contracts expiring to an aging roster, retooling the roster could be ahead, with one change potentially arriving from overseas. Per the international basketball website Crosarka (h/t Eurohoops), San Antonio and the Dallas Mavericks have interest in Facundo Campazzo.

As Eurohoops noted, Campazzo had NBA interest last summer, before signing a five-year deal to stay with Real Madrid. The deal included an NBA opt-out, though, freeing him to jump leagues at some point—except the cost to lure him from this Spanish basketball powerhouse is between six to eight million dollars, as Real Madrid coach Claudio Villanueva once told Clarin.

A 29-year-old point guard from Argentina, Campazzo has played for his native country since 2013-14 and for Real Madrid starting the season after. In the now-suspended Liga ACB due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he averaged 10.0 points, 2.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists on 39.5 percent 3-point shooting.

Campazzo is a small 5-foot-10, 194 pounds, with good ball-handling skills; a 3-point shot that has become consistent in recent seasons; and terrific perimeter defense, although facing stiffer competition in the NBA may limit his upside at this end of the court.

Given Derrick White and Dejounte Murray’s placement on the San Antonio roster, Campazzo likely slots as a reserve at point guard, especially without the versatility of the aforementioned duo. The Spurs also have Mills locked in for 2020-21, so there are ample players to handle the ball, too. However, for a team that has fallen off defensively since the Kawhi Leonard saga, perhaps taking a chance on Campazzo is worthwhile. The 2019-20 team allowed 114.9 points per game and 54.2 percent effective shooting, both of which were among the NBA’s ten highest marks.

Campazzo isn’t the first overseas player to be linked to the Silver and Black in recent seasons, but because of owned rights to talent via the NBA Draft. 2015 first-round pick, Nikola Milutinov was sporadically linked to a state-side debut in recent years, before CSKA Moscow locked him up for three years in mid-April. Adam Hanga, a 2011 second-round pick, was pursued by the Spurs in 2017, but he claimed the team never followed through on a contract promise.

Whenever the NBA off-season starts, the Spurs will have decisions to make on their 2020-21 roster, and pursuing Campazzo may be one of them. There is a lineage of international talents in San Antonio, and with a transitional era ahead, finding players outside of NBA circles is a way to bridge the gap.