Next year is going to be much tougher.
When Newton and Clingan came back, alongside Karaban, and knowing we were bringing in Castle and a decent recruiting class, we at least had something to build around. We at least had 4 starters spoken for. Spencer was the missing piece in the starting lineup, and we just needed our bench to be viable. Diarra took a major, major leap and Johnson became serviceable and filled a unique niche in our offense.
Next year, we're losing at least 4 starters (though I'm pretty confident Karaban comes back for one more year) and, unlike with Clingan stepping into a larger role and inserting Castle, this is harder to project. If Diarra comes back, he would be worthy of a starting spot. Nowell can probably get there. Maybe Stewart. But we need a portal big, or two, and probably another bench guard depending on who comes back. More question marks, and we can't count on hitting a home run like with Spencer, who was the perfect fit, skill and attitude wise, for this team.