This

Its very hard to opt out of $22M guaranteed

yes but if the issue is that under the new CBA the Spurs would only be able to offer the vets min then its mostly a moot point. We wouldn’t know how to structure his deal so it’d just be guessing against what the new cap/rules will be and even then it seems it wont make a huge difference.

If the spurs had been able to package RJ and Tony’s contracts to Sacramento (who was under the cap) as was rumored to be the plan, then we’d be sitting on vast reserves of cap space and a restructure would have made a lot more sense.

If the Spurs are inevitably going to be over the cap for at least the next year, then Tim might as well get his. According to what I could find skimming through hoopshype salaries pages, this will make Tim the 2nd highest player in the NBA next season (Well behind Kobe but edging out KG by 100K). The year following next, the Spurs should have plenty of cap room with which to sign new players and if Tim chooses not to retire, he can resign for low money or the min knowing we’ve already dropped a huge down payment on any future services with his 2nd best in the NBA salary in what could end up not being a full season anyway.

Besides, we can pay him 21 mil this year when we’d inevitably be over the cap and say 1.5mil for the next 2 years (an example for the vet min in the new CBA) OR we could pay him 8 mil/year for the next 3 years. They both add up to 24 mil over the next 3 years, however, the later deal, while not enough to get us under the cap this year, is burdensome for the next two years and restricts future growth. By not restructuring now, the team is on a more solid footing in the long run.