wco81 wrote:giberish wrote:Steph/Bowman
Klay/???
???/Paschall
Green/Spellman/Smailagic
Looney
Burks, GRIII, Chriss and WCS are all on effectively 1-year deals with UFA status and no Bird rights. To sign them again either means that they're still willing to take vet min money - so they're in low demand around the league and shouldn't be more then 3rd string - or by using MLE money, limiting what can be spend on others.
Evans and Poole are cheap, young, and currently bad. I wouldn't mind keeping one but having two 3rd string SG options seems like unwanted roster clutter.
IMO the team needs to add four significant players (and get the core guys healthy) to be in a good place next season. One high-quality SF (the toughest option to find), an extra rotation wing, a reserve combo guard, and a center to start or spit time with Looney. Add those 4 to the 8 listed above and it's 12 spots. Perhaps a 13th to Poole or Evans. Then two spots for a some combination of a min salary vet, a 2nd round pick, or open roster spot for midseason addition.
The thing as with last year's team is that when you have 2 more more max or super max players, your roster is going to be top-heavy, rely on 3 or 4 all-stars and fill the rest with minimum players.
KD is gone but Klay got his super Max and Draymond got a big raise and for now, they have DLo. Even if they move DLo, they have an additional 20-29 million committed.
So which significant players are you going to add and at what level? MLE $5 million players? $10 million?
Lacob might have been willing to pay luxury taxes if KD stayed, because they would have been favorites to keep winning. But is he going to pay $50, $100 million or more in luxury taxes for this team?
The competing issue is his new stadium. He will have trouble paying for that if this season is more than an interregnum.