Juice, I'll refer back to this post from February in reference to discussion about trading Poeltl and change for Miles Bridges.
Bridges: 23 years old, 6-6, 225
Johnson: 22 years old, 6-5, 220
Bridges last season: 12.7 pts, 6.0 reb, 2.2 ast, .503 fg, .400 3pt
Bridges this season: 19.8 pts, 6.0 reb, 3.5 ast, .486 fg, .312 fg
Johnson last season: 12.8 pts, 6.0 reb, 1.8 ast, .479 fg, .331 fg
Johnson this season: 15.4 pts, 6.1 reb, 1.8 ast, .471 fg, .431 3pt
I made that post before I looked at the stats and saw Keldon is on Bridges' trajectory. Why give up a very good C for a duplicate player?
The Spurs have done a good job of locking up players before their value increases. I got mocked for years for hyping up Dejounte Murray when he wasn't getting on national TV. The Spurs signed him on a 4/64 extension before the 2019-20 season. He became an All-Star in the second year of that extension and got traded for 3 1st round picks.
4/80 is a good bet for a guy who is on the Bridges trajectory. Keldon kind of had two different seasons. Through January, he was inefficent inside the arc and was a low volume efficient spot up shooter. He was 48% inside the arc on 8 attempts per game, but also shot about 4 3pt per game at 43.6%. Then in February, he became much more efficient inside the arc at 56% on about the same 8 attempts, but he added 3 more 3pt attempts per game and only shot 36%. His overall FG percent stayed around 46.5%, but his points when up from 15.1 to 20.2 in the last 28 games.
So going back to the Bridges comparison:
Keldon (2021-22): 17.0 pts, 6.1 reb, 2.1 ast, .466 fg, .398 3pt
Miles (2020-21): 12.7 pts, 6.0 reb, 2.2 ast, .503 fg, .400 3pt
Keldon (end of 2021-22): 20.2 pts, 5.9 reb, 2.7 ast, .468 fg, .361 3pt
Miles (2021-22): 20.2 pts, 7.0 reb, 3.8 ast, .491 fg, .331 3pt
I think the Spurs made a safe bet here.