SA has plenty of cap space to sign a max free agent. No need for them to send out a quality player to create cap room.
He does play center late in games most of the time since Robinson retired. But he's gonna be 40 when the playoffs start next season, and an entire year of banging down low with all of the big men in the West is gonna take a serious toll. The irony is Aldridge has 2 quality big men alongside him right now in Portland(Lopez, Kaman). No disrespect to Duncan, but that's something of a downgrade at that position for Aldridge if he goes to the Spurs.
Depends on what Duncan signs for. If he comes back for vet min then they can keep people, if he comes back for 7 million then they need to unload contracts.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">GM Daryl Morey on his bigs: "Deepest set of bigs in the league. I'm biased." Morey mentioned Howard, Capela, Harrell, Jones and Motiejunas.</p>— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/615503661943398401">June 29, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Morey didn't mentioned Josh Smith because he's a FA but remains committed to bringing him back. No word on Joey Dorsey's return.</p>— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/615504027749588993">June 29, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Daryl Morey said he's focused on retaining own FA over getting something big. "Probably like to say over the cap and use our mid-level."</p>— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/615505325983170560">June 29, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Not really. They have to resign Duncan. Unless he's willing to play for peanuts(i.e. 5 mil or less), that'll eat up some capspace. If Manu doesn't retire, that'll use up space as well. Plus there's Kawhi. He's due a max deal. Plus Joseph, Baynes, Belinelli, and Green are all free agents as well. Green is probably gone, but they can't afford to lose too many of those guys. Then after all that, they have to fit in 18-19 mil for Aldridge. And yes, a sign-and-trade is a possibility with Splitter's 8 1/2 mil included in the deal, but as I said, that leaves them without a center.
There is no word on Dorsey because they are stuck with him for another year. Are there any other realistic targets to use the full MLE on apart from Llull, provided it is not used to re-sign Josh Smith and KJ McDaniels?
Lets go ahead and clear up what SAS can offer without trading any players. SA Current salary situation: Cap minus all free agents not named Duncan or Leonard: $33,659,326 million Duncan resigns @ current salary of $10 million. Kawhi Leonard has a cap hold of $7,235,147 dollars. 5 incomplete roster spot charges $525,093 each for $2,625,465 dollars That gives SAS a salary cap of $53,519,938 dollars. Projected Cap is $66,500,000 dollars SAS Cap Space = ~$12,980,062 dollars If SAS intends to use cap space to sign LMA then you are correct. They will need to send out ~7 million in salary. They would also need to resign Tim Duncan immediately to prevent his cap hold of $15 million. Looking at this, SAS is basically in the same boat as us. The only realistic way to get LMA is through a sign and trade with Portland. micah1j thanks for making me scrutinize SAS salary cap room.
Calvin has a weird fascination with Dorsey and getting him off the roster. Spoiler <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Is this the end of Joey Dorsey? We have another power forward on the roster.</p>— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/614269571332218880">June 26, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Feeling I'm getting is Rockets aren't high on Joey Dorsey and they've found his replacement.</p>— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/614310369343836160">June 26, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Morey didn't mentioned Josh Smith because he's a FA but remains committed to bringing him back. No word on Joey Dorsey's return.</p>— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/615504027749588993">June 29, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">From what I've been told no trade of TJones. <a href="https://t.co/ET4xKm94TA">https://t.co/ET4xKm94TA</a></p>— Calvin Watkins (@calvinwatkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/calvinwatkins/status/615514879861129216">June 29, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
If Bledsoe goes on the market and the Rockets have the same set of point guards as last season, see how fast TJones goes on the market.
Papa is just thrown in to make the salaries match. But would T-Jones, Dekker, and a future pick(along with other players for salary purposes) do the trick?
i wonder what would be the priority...signing our own free agents, signing other FA or securing our PG?
