SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Spurs have released veteran reserve big man Khem Birch in an effort to get down to the league-mandated 15 maximum roster spots, according to a press release.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania was the first to report the news. The team later made the announcement.
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Birch, 31, was acquired by the team as part of a trade with the Toronto Raptors that sent starting center Jakob Poeltl to Canada in exchange for a 2024 first-round pick and two second-round selections. The team has since drafted Sidy Cissoko with one of the draft picks.
Originally undrafted out of UNLV, the former Runnin’ Rebel was sidelined for most of his time with the Spurs, with a lingering knee injury. He never played in a regular season game.
The 6-foot-8 inch 230-pound big man played in one preseason game for the Spurs, playing 11 minutes and scoring no points while grabbing four rebounds and dishing out two assists in the first of the two preseason games against the Houston Rockets.
Birch over the course of his six-year career has also seen time with the Orlando Magic and the Raptors, averaging five points and 4.4 rebounds over 280 games, with 76 career starts.
He was always believed to be a long shot to make the Spurs 2023-2024 roster, as the Spurs have emphasized youth while compiling a team around recent No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick Victor Wembanyama.
The team as it stands intends to play starter Zach Collins and reserve bigs Charles Bassey, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Dominick Barlow at his position moving forward.
Having 16 players previously on guaranteed contracts, the team had to release one player to get to the league-mandated 15-player roster maximum.