I know nobody wants to hear it but my prediction for next season is.
This is somewhere between what I hope, and what I predict.
1) Melo walks to a contender, but we also don't make attempts to resign him.
2) Hezonja declines PO and returns to Europe.
3) Hood ops in to his PO.
4) Ariza has his TO exercised and returns.
5) Whiteside is resigned for 2/24M.
6) Gabriel is resigned to a minimum deal, 1 year.
7) Swanigan, Moses walk.
8) Hoard signs another Two-Way Contract
This is where the hope comes into play:
9) We sign a backup PG using a portion of the MLE. In this dream, we overpay
De'Anthony Melton (RFA) and MEM lets him walk as they already have Tyus Jones and Morant. Melton gives us a ball of energy at PG who is a great defender and excellent compliment to Damian and CJ. He is young but plays a tenacious game and at 22 is similar to a poor mans Bledsoe.
10) We draft F Jalen Smith out of Maryland, a pogo stick with range who can ideally get us hustle minutes right off the bat.
11) We neglect finding a long term SF because we already have him on our team, his name is Gary Trent Jr (Don't fully agree with this, but he is playing 60% of the time at SF this year, not forcing a SF singing or pick is possible IMO).
G - Damian Lillard / De'Anthony Melton / (Anferne Simons)
G - CJ McCollum / Anferne Simons / (De'Anthony Melton)
F - Trevor Ariza / Gary Trent Jr / Nassir Little / Wenyen Gabriel
F - Zach Collins / Nassir Little / Jalen Smith / Wenyen Gabriel
C - Jusuf Nurkic / Hassan Whiteside / (Zach Collins)