So it looks like the Clippers could S&T George, but they couldn't receive any salary back for him. That certainly makes it harder to match him. It looks like the Clippers could extend-and-trade George if he opts in. That would be a $153.7M/3 deal. The only restriction they'd have then is not being able to take back more salary than they send out. The Spurs would need to send out almost exactly $39 Million to match, though it doesn't all have to go to the Clippers. The easiest way to create this matching salary would be to trade Johnson and Collins, for $35.7 Million total and then to increase Graham's guarantee to $3.3 Million to make up the rest of the salary. Then the Spurs can pay a team to take Collins and trade Johnson and Graham to LAC along with some seconds so the Clips can trade Graham away to save on that tax hit if they so choose or keep the seconds to use later.
What it would take to get off Collins is the biggest question. In the scenario I laid out yesterday, I had the Spurs trading Collins, 5, and the worse of the ATL picks to Atlanta for 10 and Graham, seconds and cash to Detroit. That trade down was necessary to open up the extra cap space. It wouldn't be necessary here, so other ideas could be explored. Or the Clippers could keep Collins in return for getting say the CHI and CHA picks.
Let's assume the Spurs have 6 and 7 (which are as far as I could tell the two likeliest results for the picks) and decide to stay over the cap by holding onto their cap holds. After making the George trade, they'd have the two firsts, two seconds, MLE, LLE and min contracts to fill out their rotation. I think to a lot of posters, this would seem like a superior scenario. But I think that undervalues Johnson in relation to the rest of the league. That team badly needs competent bench players. I'm going to assume the team drafts Castle and Knecht with the picks just to continue the trend of picking new players every scenario. Knecht adds much-needed shooting and scoring to the bench, but he lacks play-making and defense. Castle has the defense to eventually move into the starting unit, but most of the other things are lack. I'm going to just assume the second-rounders are two-way guys to get them out of the way, because no team that trades multiple firsts for Paul George should be projecting second-rounders as rotation players.
I'm going to go a little out of left field and have Chris Paul sign with the Spurs on a 1-and-1 MLE deal. That's way below his market, but I'm not sure if he would see a better fit out there. For the LLE, the Spurs would sign Mason Plumlee. Hopefully between him and Bassey/Barlow those minutes can be handled. Then bring back Mamu using his EB rights.
Paul, Jones, Wesley
Vassell, Branham, Castle
George, Knecht, Champangie
Sochan, Mamukelashvili, Cissoko
Wembayama, Plumlee, Bassey
This increased the team's strength on paper a lot, but that bench feels really weak on both sides of the ball. Swapping out Knecht for Holland would mean there's a lot of defensive potential, but he shooting would be a struggle. I'm skeptical that Plumelee that is still a viable center. If you're going to bench Branham to give Castle his starting spot, you may as well trade him. It's easier in my mind to come up with a viable bench with Keldon on the team rather than with him off it.