Spurs strangely renounce Jonathon Simmons but will still try to re-sign him, per report

The San Antonio Spurs have renounced Jonathon Simmons, according to The Vertical’s Shams Charania. However, the team is still negotiating with him, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Mike Wright, making this an exceedingly quizzical move from the ever-reliable Spurs front office.

Simmons was a restricted free agent headed into his third season after spending his first two with the Spurs. By renouncing him, Simmons joins the open market and is able to sign with any of the 30 teams. As a restricted free agent, the Spurs would have had the option to match any contract he signed.

Since the Spurs are still reportedly interested in signing him, this is bizarre. By renouncing Simmons, they immediately lose leverage with him and against the rest of the league. Other teams can negotiate with Simmons at their preferred price, rather than negotiate with him at a price they believe the Spurs wouldn’t match. It would make sense that Simmons would stay somewhat loyal to San Antonio, the team that discovered him and a stellar franchise. Still, allowing Simmons into the open market rather than retaining his rights — which had a nearly negligible $1.5 million cap hold — doesn’t make much sense on the surface.

If San Antonio didn’t plan on re-signing Simmons, they still didn’t need to renounce him. He would have been free to sign elsewhere, and the Spurs just wouldn’t have matched. In fact, this would hurt Simmons’ leverage to get more money with other teams if this were the case.

Still, this is only what we know from a salary cap perspective, and the Spurs have been fleecing the rest of the league for more than two decades. It’s safe to assume that they have a totally reasonable plan for why they did this. Maybe it’s a show of faith or gesture of good will, showing they’ll do Simmons a “favor” (that’s debatable) while hoping to talk him down to their price.

Either way, it’s a strange situation for Simmons. Last year, the 6’6 guard played 78 games, averaging about 18 minutes and six points on 42 percent shooting.