2017-18 salary cap space (with projected $102 million cap)

$14.8 million (Nine players with $84.8 million in guaranteed contracts, one draft pick worth $815,615 million and two roster charges worth $1.6 million). Doesn’t include a player option for Dante Cunningham or a non-guaranteed contract for Jordan Crawford.

2017 free agents

PG Jrue Holiday, PG Quinn Cook, PF Donatas Motiejunas

Five questions to answer

1. Will Jrue Holiday be back in New Orleans next season?

Most might expect the first question about the Pelicans to center around their dynamic big-man combination of Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. But the most immediate concern facing New Orleans is what will happen when Holiday hits unrestricted free agency in July.

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New Orleans doesn’t have anything close to Holiday on its roster. And, because the Pelicans only are going to have somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 million to spend in free agency even without Holiday (assuming they don’t leap into the top three and keep their first-round pick, as the odds are heavily against), they will have little choice but to pay whatever it takes to keep him – assuming Holiday wants to be there.

Either way, Holiday will have suitors this summer as a quality point guard who can both score and defend, and is a solid three-point shooter (36.6 percent for his career). How things move forward in New Orleans could largely hinge on convincing Holiday to remain with the franchise.

2. Can Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins be an effective partnership?

Here’s the other question facing New Orleans: can its pair of dominant bigs coexist? Early returns are positive, as in 17 games together, the Pelicans outscored their opponents by just less than three points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com.

In trading for Cousins, New Orleans took a risk it had to, given the situation it was in. The Pelicans weren’t going to find another player of his caliber on the free agent market, so by bringing him in it gives them a year to get him used to playing with Davis (who he is friendly with from their shared Kentucky connection). The Pelicans will hope they can convince him to re-sign with the franchise for the long term next summer.

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That could wind up being determined by how New Orleans does next season – which, in turn, will be impacted by how these two play together. It will be a fascinating situation, and New Orleans can only hope the limited success they had together will carry over to next season after they have a full offseason and training camp to get used to one another.

3. Can Solomon Hill make progress?

After Hill impressed for Indiana as a small-ball power forward against the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the playoffs, New Orleans lavished him with a large contract to come play next to Davis. Instead of building on that success, though, Hill instead reverted to his usual standard, finishing with a shooting percentage lower than 40 percent, even with a slight uptick in his three-point percentage this season.

For a team with limited financial flexibility going forward – in part because of Hill’s contract – the Pelicans desperately need Hill to make strides next season. The problem is that while Hill is likely best suited as a small-ball power forward, which was how he had success in that playoff series, New Orleans has less of a need for a player of that skill set when it’s going to have Cousins and Davis on the court together for long stretches of time.

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Either way, New Orleans needs Hill to prove he can be a consistent role player for them next season. Already with a sunken cost in Omer Asik on the bench, the Pelicans simply can’t have Hill playing like someone unworthy of being in an NBA rotation next season.

4. Can Quincy Pondexter ever play again?

The Pelicans have been searching for a wing who can play defense and be a quality three-point shooter for years now (which is partly why they, at least to this point, made a mistake in signing Hill). The problem for New Orleans has been that the answer the past two seasons has already, in an ideal world, been on its roster.

Quincy Pondexter is exactly the kind of “3-and-D” player the Pelicans need to surround their star bigs with, but hasn’t played either of the past two seasons because of ongoing issues with his knees that have resulted in several surgeries. It’s been an unfortunate situation, and one with seemingly no end in sight.

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The hope is that Pondexter returns next season, when he’ll be entering the final year of his contract, and give New Orleans what they need while setting himself up to get another contract next summer.

5. What does the future hold for Alvin Gentry and Dell Demps?

The Pelicans have gone through the past two seasons with Gentry, their coach, and Demps, their general manager, constantly under scrutiny and facing questions about their job security.

At various times, it’s seemed like one, the other or both are about to be shown the door; yet both remain employed. It seemed like both could be gone at the end of this season, but the Cousins trade gave them an extra year, at least, to try and make things work.

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Gentry, who favors a pace-and-space scheme, would seem to be an odd fit for a roster with both Davis and Cousins, while Demps has been perpetually under fire for years now. The fact both are under pressure heading into next season, while the team is led by a pair of University of Kentucky products, will inevitably lead to rumors that John Calipari could be lured from the Wildcats to run the entire franchise. Either way, though, only a strong performance next season on the court will ensure both finally have some long-term job security.