05-18-2026, 05:02 AM
(05-18-2026, 12:04 AM)F Gump Wrote: " One of the few teams with capspace" --- True in theory... but in reality, they won't have any.
On paper, they can open up 24M-ish in cap room. BUT TO DO SO - they would have to renounce Bird rights to resign Duren and Harris. They can't replace that talent with 24M spent in free agency. AND they won't want to go down that road, ditching 2 starters after they get good. Their fans would revolt.
In fact, it's highly likely that they are in a bit of a payroll crunch as they game plan for the summer. How much do they have to pay Duren and Harris to keep them? Just spitballing, let's conservatively pencil in Duren at $33M (his max is $41M and he will prob try to get it) and Harris at 20M (he was just paid 26M and probably won't want to take less) and they are under the tax line but don't really have room for full MLE.
I would guess they are a team who looks for a helpful trade, as their summer route. Or maybe they just target internal growth after reupping Duren and Harris. They have a lot of player who should still have room to grow.
I wonder it they might be a candidate to "sell" their FRP (#21) so they don't have to pay that salary.
They are in an interesting situation for sure - dominated the regular season, then got exposed by the Magic as an 8 seed and would have gone out if not for Franz Wagners injury, then got exposed by Cleveland again, after at least fighting back and making it to game 7 at home.
So what does this team need? For sure killer instinct, veteran leadership, a proven performer in the playoffs and skills that are sustainable in the postseason like shooting, creating off the dribble and winning one on one matchups - because outworking and overpowering the opponents isn’t enough anymore.
How would a completely recovered Kyrie change their playoff potential?
Could he be enough to take them to the finals, bringing most of the things in abundance they were clearly missing?