No significant overpays which means we aren't continuing the Olshey tradition of bidding against ourselves which is nice. That should put us at between 136M and 138M for 12 players... if you count in 3.9M in dead space for Bledsoe and the 3.844 in dead space for Nicholson. At that point you have to question if the team wants to go into the tax. There's a rumor right now that we are vying for Thybulle which would mean absorbing his ~4.4M and sending out future draft considerations. That would take us to a place where if we just used the BAE to pick up a backup C and picked up a vet min PG we would have a full roster that came in under the tax.
Dame, vet min PG (Austin Rivers)
Ant, Hart, Shaedon, Keon
Thybulle, Nas, Didi
Grant, Justise, Trendon, Greg
Nurk, BAE C (Chris Boucher)
I don't think that starting SF spot would be a given in any way. I think there would be a pretty serious competition in training camp and preseason for that spot between Thybulle, Hart and Nas and could see any of the three winning it. Due to Ant getting all of the backup minutes at PG there should be about 30 minutes to earn at SG and 48 at SF. That could leave Nas, Thybulle and Hart with 20+ minutes a piece and still leave another ~15 minutes for Shaedon, should he be ready.
That could be a competitive team but it doesn't scream, "taking it to the limit" or doing everything we can to "get to the peak" like Joe was saying at the last presser. So maybe we go into the tax using the full MLE and just try to get the guy who could have the most trade value at the deadline. We cut Didi and pick up some sort of deal with Ingles.
Dame, Ant, Thybulle, Grant, Nurk, Hart, Nas, Justise, Ingles, Full MLE, Shaedon, Trendon, Keon, Greg and a vet min at whatever is the position of need probably gives us a lot more fire power to make a big splash at the trade deadline than the roster above... if we pick the right guy with the MLE and don't shit the bed (Derrick Jones Jr.).
We've got one week before shit gets real. Fun Times! Go Blazers!!!