I like Derozan but the best bang for our buck will be Mike Conley. He will come. He'll get paid and potentially be a huge cog and hero in our turn around. I am 100% for a youth movement and its exactly why Conley is the guy you give max money to.
This is the direction I would take with the team right now. We can sign a max guy and still have money to give Noel a deal. Have money to sign our draft picks, draft 3 guys and start competing for a title.
I am assuming we lose Burks/Bullock because of cap restraints. *MAYBE* we can get Reggie back for a reasonable deal. I think someone might throw the MLE at him and if so good luck bud, you earned it and we loved having you here.
As it stands if we split all our cap space between Conley/Noel here's how I would expect us to look next year:
Starters:
Conley
RJ
Randle
Mitch
Key rotation:
IQ
Rose (returns on whatever works... remember his Adidas contract pays him crazy money)
Noel
8-10 in the rotation:
Obi
Knox
Taj (back on veteran exception which is good at his age)
Rest of roster:
Draft picks 15,21,33 (projected as of 4/21)
etc
Its simple. We slightly overpay one older guy but its the perfect balance. The only age on the whole roster are your floor generals Conley/Rose and assuming Taj comes back in his current role of 3rd center (what a job he's done!).
If you look at the +/- and impact Rose has had the clear need for a veteran floor general is clear. Everyone sees it. We dont just need to upgrade Payton. We need another star next to RJ/Randle and Conley can be that guy. Meanwhile (and perhaps most important) is we add a fresh crop of alluring young players when some big piece shakes free and we land that.
That team will be good. We will have a lot of young guys. Veteran floor generals, elite rim protection, and a pair of two-way bruisers in RJ/Randle who pound you like Giants running backs Jacobs/Bradshaw back in the day. You keep your picks and current young guys vs. using them in trades for Wiggins or Lonzo Ball.
The B side to this do basically do the exact same thing with Schroder. He's not really a max guy but he's def an impact guy, played good D, lives in the paint and is the kind of attacking guard that Thibs relishes. A Schroder/RJ/Randle/Mitch is a pretty good start also.
Conley
Side b:
Schroder
DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT. Focus remains on drafting and developing. All these guys have upside and are coachable. Lets build some continuity and start will solidifying the floor general.
"winning is more fun... then fun is fun" -Thibs