I just believe we need to try to trade for expiring players (Gay, Holiday) or smaller contracts (Noel) because expiring players are more available, and because cap room would still be possible. (If we can't trade for a star). If we don't get better, and can't get that star, I wouldn't mind a semi-blowup, with the intention of restocking this summer around a more defensive oriented core.
Here's something we could to (Warning: Lots of big moves)
If we hypothetically switched Crabbe for Noels smaller contract, that'd save us about $10M. If we traded Leonard for nothing (or an expiring) we'd save $20M. That would leave us only $13M or so above the cap next year. We'd be frontcourt heavy but switching Crabbe and Leonard out for Noel likely makes us better presently, as well as for the future, and would save us apx. $20M. We'd be frontcourt heavy, but then we could possible toss in Plumlee for another expiring (Holiday?), which would balance our team, make us better now, and save us even more money during the off-season, if Holiday left.
So take that $20M we saved and we're still about $14M above the cap.
However, it's likely Ezeli doesn't get healthy and we don't pick up his team option. Suddenly we're about $6M above the cap, and losing Ezeli wouldn't be a hit either.
It's also likely that we'll be able to use the amnesty clause next summer on Turner. I like Layman taking his minutes next year, and I don't think that would be a loss either.
So far, we swapped Crabbe and Leonard out for Noel, which is a plus. Plumlee is a loss if we want this cap space, but Holiday would possibly resign. Turner gets replaced by Layman, and then we end up with $10M in cap space during a summer that has less teams with cap space and better free agent options.
We'd still have a starting lineup with a solid bench.
Lillard
McCollum
Harkless / Layman
Aminu / Vonleh
Noel / Davis
We would then have four paths:
1.) Trade McCollum, Davis, and a pick or two for Cousins, saving us $13M, giving us 2 all-stars with nearly max cap room with a better chance of landing a big-time 3rd player than last year.
We could pursue guys like Hayward, Griffin, and if we won't land one we could resign Holiday to replace CJ. We could also sign mid-level players.
2.) We could try to sign a max player and if we get lucky we could trade 2 of Harkless/Davis/Aminu to clear up the necessary space.
3.) We could resign Holiday or whatever expired contracts we acquired in the process, then use are MLE to shore up the bench. (Covington, Mills, Patterson, Randolph?)
4,) And if all else fails, we could use that $10M in cap on a backup guard that fits better with Lillard and McCollum than the guys we have right now.
All 3 options would likely be improvements over what we have going right now. Just some ideas.