2020-2021 ROSTER TALK: Archived

[mvossman]

If we ended up keeping this squad together and added a rotation player with the MLE would that be considered a step forward for you?  

I had always been on the side of operating over the cap, but that was under the assumption that they trade Johnson for a future tradeable contract or at least someone they would want to re-sign (Fournier).  Now that that ship has sailed, if they operate over the cap their best option is to re-sign THJ and JRich and sign a quality big with the MLE (Holmes, Millsap, Green?).  That is not terribly exciting.  Maybe you make a trade with some combination of Brunson/Powell/WCS/picks to get a starter who can distribution and create for themselves a little bit.  Not sure that is enough assets and/or salary to get done what we would want.

If we go the cap space route, it seems like the options are:

Jrue Holiday (max).  This means no THJ or JRich or MLE and the Bucks probably keep him anyways
Kyle Lowry (2/25).  Prolly can't fit either THJ or JRich (unless he opts in) but would have cap slightly more than MLE
Mike Conley (2/20).  Should be able to keep one of THJ/JRich.  Does Utah let him go?
Demar DeRozan (3/20).  Should be able to keep one of THJ/JRich.  Makes most sense as 6th man.  Does he want to do that?

I'm ignoring restricted as that's a fools game (I hope we don't do something stupid like max Collins).  If we can't land one of these 4, we are probably better off re-signing the guys we currently have and getting what we can with the MLE.