Path 2
Pretty exciting and a little scary. It supposes that both Tim and Manu retire without taking any of their salary for next season. West opts out but doesn’t necessarily retire. The Spurs then waive and stretch Diaw while finding a way to stash their picks or use them in trades. They don’t give Boban a QO, and they renounce all of their free agents. That gets them to $68,904,045. They have to have five roster charges of $543,471 each for a total of $2,717,355.
That gets them to $71,621,400 in total, or about $20,378,600 in available space. That’s not enough for any max contract, though it’s very close for guys like Whiteside. I’m not sure what that buys in a previous year, but this summer, it probably won’t buy much. If the cap is a couple million higher, it would be enough for a full max for Whiteside, but I’m pretty unconvinced that he’d be a good use of money. There are others like Clarkson and Sullinger who could be had potentially, but they’re RFAs and won’t necessarily be good value either. Best hope is to get a couple of really good players if you want to go this route without trading away anyone else.
Bottom line is that it’s even less likely that the Spurs will have the ability to sign a big-name player this summer than it was last year. With so many teams having space, players simply won’t have to take less. It would require even bigger personnel sacrifices to get the space, and that’s even harder to swallow given that this idea relies on losing three of the most cost-effective players on the roster.