Are we not one move away from being a top 5 team?

We need someone who can play on the outside. There's not much that can really happen this off-season for us short of a couple big names opting out. Even then, I doubt we'd lure any of them down here, right now I would just try to focus on bringing in depth and unloading bad contracts.

Lebron James would be a good move

GM, coach, PG, resign Jrue and slide to SG

One Player away from a Big 3 and One Move away from a Big 3 are 2 completely different things. To get to a Big 3 within the next 2-3 years:

1) Take the team that you have now, add decent players, get some help from outside (Hayward leaving Utah and the Clippers imploding would be nice) and become a top 4 seed.

2) Don't add any bad contracts. You'll need to dump and/or trade people to create the cap space needed to add a 3rd star.

Do 1 and 2 and maybe you become the place Jimmy Butler or Paul George try to go when their contracts are up. As much as PG-13 reportedly wants to play in LA, if the Lonzo Lakers look like last year's TWolves, and the Pels are a top 4 seed knocking on the door, is PG-13 really going to help the Lakers rebuild when he could join an instant contender?

We need cheap shooters. Look at how Lebron has built teams around him. 3 studs and a bunch of cheap shooters who can hit an open shot when he or Kyrie drive the lane

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A quality 3&D shooting guard, some solid role playing vets, and just more experience and chemistry together.

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they dont have the money for a quality 3 and D wing, unless Holiday walks.

here's Duncan and Leroux on the Pels offseason (go to the last 20 minutes). it's not exactly a rosy picture on the cap/assets side of the ledger for the foreseeable future even if they keep Holiday and have a successful season next year (45 wins or so, playoffs, etc)

still hope b/c of the potential of Davis/Cousins, but the Pels have just done a piss poor job of building a sustainable team over the past few years.

honestly, and i'm not sure i really believe this, the best play may be letting Jrue walk, work to get Boogie to sign an extension this summer, see how far Davis/Cousins can actually take you, and try to keep some modicum of flexibility around that pair going forward

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the best play may be letting Jrue walk

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Here's the problem with this strategy, it only works and you only get flexibility if you replace Holiday's cap space with something short term or on a better value contract (ie more tradeable) than what you can resign Holiday for. Sign 3 Moore's and it's a good strategy, sign 2 Hill's and maybe you should have kept Holiday.

I guess one positive we can take is that they no longer have to force moves to appease AD about not wanting to play center.

Even Sergio Rodriguez might fit this option.

DeMarre Carroll is probably the most available of this type of player and you might even be able to get an asset to take him. He's a shell of his former self but he's pretty much in the same talent tier as the Pel's other SFs and allows you to let Cunningham walk if you don't like what you have to pay him.

If you could turn the Carroll Sweetener into enough sweetener for getting Rubio with just Ajinca/QPon, then you've got a target. The offseason before the 2019-2020 season. The only contracts currently on the books for then will be AD/DC/Moore/Hill/Diallo and Asik's partial guarantee. Moore and Hill will be expiring so you could dump them and Diallo will have a cheap cap hold before getting a raise. So in theory you could strip it down to just AD/DC at that point if you don't commit to anyone for more than 2-3 years over the next 2 offseasons.