I think one of the best outcomes from this free agency period would be as follows:
- The salary cap gets bumped up to $69,100,000 (this would give us $9,997,083 in cap space).
- Trade Landry to Chicago while removing the protection of the 2016 1st Rounder for a future protected 2nd Rounder. This would give us $15,971,990 in cap space.
- Sign Danny Green to a $50,000,000/4 year contract (will be $11,687,182 in the first year of his contract). This will leave us with $4,809,901 in cap space.
- Sign Cory Joseph to a $20,577,676/4 year cont (will be $4,809,901 in the first year of his contract). This will leave us with $525,093 in cap space.
- Trade Ben McLemore, Ray McCallum, & David Stockton for Wilson Chandler
- Sign Cole Aldrich using the Room Exception.
- Sign Andre Miller, John Lucas III, Omri Casspi, Drew Gooden, & Reggie Evans to veteran minimum deals
Our roster would look like this going into next season:
PG - Collison/Joseph/Miller/Lucas
SG - Green/Stauskas
SF - Gay/Chandler/Casspi
PF - Thompson/Gooden/Evans/Moreland
C - Cousins/Cauley-Stein/Aldrich
We could run a tight 8 man rotation of Collison, Green, Gay, Thompson, Cousins, Joseph, Chandler, & Cauley-Stein with Stauskas and Aldrich seeing limited time. There's a lot to like about this roster. First of all, it's loaded with veterans who can help us win now, while also having a good amount of youth (Joseph, Stauskas, Cauley-Stein, Cousins).
We would have good defenders at every single position (Collison/Joseph at PG, Green at SG, Chandler at SF, Thompson/Cauley-Stein at PF, & Cousins/Aldrich at C). With our defensive versatility, we should be able to match-up with most if not every team in the league. Rim protection would be good with Cousins, Cauley-Stein, Aldrich, & Moreland (if he starts to show signs he can cut it in the NBA).
Shooting and spacing should be very good as well. Collison, Joseph, Green, Stauskas, Gay, Chandler, Casspi, & Gooden would all be respectable from beyond the arc to help create space for Cousins. Even Thompson has a midrange jumper that can help space the floor when he's in.
The starting unit is well balanced with two go-to options (Cousins & Gay) an unselfish 3rd scorer (Collison) and two roleplayers (Thompson & Green). Collison/McLemore/Gay/Thompson/Cousins was the 5th best rotation in the NBA last year. Replacing McLemore with Green should only improve that rotation (and if Cauley-Stein is able to catch on quickly, he may be able to improve it further).
The bench would be much improved as well. Joseph, Chandler, & Cauley-Stein is the beginning of a very solid bench. With an up and coming lottery pick (Stauskas) and a tough, defensive C (Aldrich) available on the deep bench, this unit should not disappoint.
I still think it's very unlikely we are able to sign Green, and I haven't heard any rumors that we're interested in Joseph yet so this scenario is very unlikely. But hey one can dream, right?