Crabbe and Hill would likely leave $5 million for Curry. But that would also leave the Kings with 7 wings and only six slots and only 2 PGs when they need 3. McLemore for Burke or Mack would fix that. Then Acy (or another low cost big) with the room exception.
Cousins/Papagiannis/Gudaitis or Moreland
Cauley-Stein/Acy/Labissiere
Gay/Casspi/Butler
Crabbe/Hill/Richardson
Collison/Curry/Burke
Statistically Collison/McLemore/Gay/Thompson/Cousins was a very good starting five. I have to think this group could be just as good but without the historically bad bench.
Not a complete makeover but a solid roster for Joerger to work with.
Definitely agree with you on the Collison/McLemore/Gay/Thompson/Cousins argument, but Gay & Collison are going to be expiring next year and Gay is in his 30s. I like Crabbe & Hill moving forward as they are just 1 year younger than Cousins and can enter their primes at roughly the same time.
As for the scenario, I would likely try and take a different approach than the one you described...
We have ~$31.5 mil in cap space counting Cousins, Gay, Koufos, Collison, McLemore, Cauley-Stein, Casspi, Butler, Papagiannis, Richardson, Labissiere, & Curry's cap hold. From here, I would make two trades:
Trade #1
Kings Get: Tyreke Evans
Pelicans Get: Rudy Gay
Why? Pelicans strengthen their SF spot and free up time for Holiday, Pondexter, & Hield. Kings get a guy who can help with backup PG duties (or fill in if Collison gets suspended for stretches), be our sixth man off the bench, & comes off the books the following year when we want to invest in our PG of the future (also gives us around $3 mil in extra cap space).
Trade #2
Kings Get: Knicks' 1st (top 20 protected in 2017 & 2018, otherwise a 2nd rounder in 2019)
Knicks Get: Kosta Koufos
Why? Knicks get a cheap center option they can plug next to Porzingis while saving their cap space for another wing to fit next to Rose/Anthony/Porzingis/Koufos. Kings clear cap space for this year, free up the logjam at center, and pick up a future pick during a time when the Kings may not have many picks.
These two trades leave the Kings with ~$42.2 mil in cap space and this roster:
PG - Collison/Evans/Curry
SG - Mclemore/Richardson
SF - Casspi/Butler
PF - Cauley-Stein/Labissiere
C - Cousins/Papagiannis
Then we sign Allen Crabbe to a $68mil/4 year deal, Ryan Anderson to a $48mil/3 year deal, & Solomon Hill to a $40mil/4 year deal. That leaves the Kings with ~2.1 mil in cap space. They can use that money to resign Acy and then go over the cap to retain Curry considering he is a restricted free agent. That leaves us with this team going into next year:
PG - Collison (28 min) / Evans (20 min) / Curry
SG - Crabbe (28 min) / McLemore (12 min) / Evans (8 min) / Richardson
SF - Hill (26 min) / Casspi (22 min) / Butler
PF - Cauley-Stein (16 min) /Anderson (28 min) / Casspi (4 min) / Acy / Labissiere
C - Cousins (36 min) / Cauley-Stein (12 min) / Papagiannis
Cousins - 36 min
Collison - 28 min
Evans - 28 min
Crabbe - 28 min
Cauley-Stein - 28 min
Anderson - 28 min
Hill - 26 min
Casspi - 26 min
McLemore - 12 min
Then the following year, you have this remaining team on the books with ~34.2 mil in cap space:
PG - Curry
SG - Crabbe / Richardson
SF - Hill
PF - Cauley-Stein / Anderson / Acy / Labissiere
C - Cousins / Papagiannis
Ideally, you would hope that McLemore takes a big jump this season and we lockdown a young athletic, defensive, 3pt shooting wing rotation of Crabbe/Hill/McLemore. It also gives us more flexibility with our cap space as McLemore is a RFA whereas Casspi is UFA (and we don't have his bird rights meaning we can't go over the salary cap to sign him). So again, you hope Joerger gets McLemore going, and you use a big chunk of that cap on a Lowry, Holiday, Teague, etc. to be our starting PG.
I think that's what I'm hoping for this offseason (not holding my breath though).