Ryan Blackburn of Mile High Sports asked Booth about his confidence in retaining Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, the team’s stalwart shooting guard starter, in NBA free agency after the draft. Booth’s answer seemed to strongly imply he is not confident the two-time champion shooting guard will be back (emphasis mine): You mentioned the starting lineup, having all those guys together, having an expensive starting lineup — we’ve talked about the limitations that the CBA has really presented, has that changed your perspective or shaped your perspective on making sure to retain KCP vs. different pathways that were obviously limited obviously if you lose him? Booth: Yeah, I think you have to look at everything and the nature of free agency is that he’s unrestricted. So we can try to bring him back and if he doesn’t want to come back or opts to go somewhere else, that’s his prerogative so we’ll have to work with that. So I think we’re prepared to like plug and play so to speak. When you look at some of the teams that have been good in the past, they had to find a way to replace fourth, fifth starters, sixth men off the bench and still keep rolling. It would be nice if he’s back, we’d have a lot of continuity together, but all the stuff I’ve looked at with lineup stuff and everything, Christian Braun is one of the best net rating guys in the league — as is KCP. So I think if he’s to step into the starting lineup, I would project that we’ll be OK if KCP doesn’t return.” -via SB Nation / June 27, 2024
