Veteran big man Tyler Zeller, who has been out of the NBA since 2019, has signed with the San Antonio Spurs.
Zeller, who last played for the Memphis Grizzlies in the 2018-19 season, inked a deal with the Spurs for the rest of this season per The Athletic’s Shams Charania and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
A seven-year NBA veteran who will wear No. 40 in San Antonio, Zeller has career averages of 7.0 points and 4.4 rebounds per game and appeared in six games in 2018-19 (two with the Atlanta Hawks, four with the Grizzlies). The Spurs are shorthanded on their frontline after All-Star big man LaMarcus Aldridge was ruled out for the season following shoulder surgery in early June.
San Antonio is one of the 22 teams will that report to the ESPN Wide Wide Of Sports complex at the Disney campus near Orlando, Florida, starting next month, when the NBA plans to resume its season. The Spurs have been to the playoffs in 22 consecutive seasons, matching the longest streak in NBA history.
When play resumes, the Spurs will be among four teams — the others being Portland, New Orleans and Sacramento — that are all separated by a half-game in the race for ninth place in the Western Conference and potentially a berth in a play-in series. The gap between those four teams is .010 percentage points.
