NBA Trade Deadline 2018: 5 trades to rescue Kemba Walker
The Charlotte Hornets are struggling and reportedly fielding offers for star point guard Kemba Walker. Here are a few trades to save him from NBA purgatory.
The Hornets are in a bad way. They sit firmly outside the Eastern Conference playoff picture. They are light on young talent and heavy on middling veterans on very expensive contracts. This is a team built for playoff contention but not good enough to actually get there. Starting over is going to mean making some touch decisions and the front office might be ready to make them, considering reports last week that they were fielding offers for Kemba Walker.
Walker has an All-Star and one of the best at his position in the Eastern Conference. He could be useful to a lot of other teams around the league and here are a few deals that could save him from the Hornets sinking ship.
5. Phoenix Suns: Tyler Ulis, Davon Reed, Greg Monroe and Miami’s 2018 first-round pick for Kemba Walker and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
If the Suns were hesitant to bite on acquiring Kyrie Irving last fall (mostly because the price was too high), they will have similar reservations about Walker. It will, however, take severely less to get Walker, and considering that Phoenix has the most cap space in the NBA, they are a candidate worth considering.
The Suns are unlikely to offer any of their core four prospects (Josh Jackson, Marquese Chriss, Dragan Bender or Devin Booker) in a deal for Walker, but if they could use one of their seven draft picks over the next four years, the conversation could have legs. This year’s Miami pick looks the least tasty of all at this point, but it could be replaced with the floating Milwaukee pick that Phoenix acquired in the Eric Bledsoe deal earlier this season. It could also convey this season.
On the prospect side, Ulis and Reed represent the Suns’ next tier of prospects. Both are former high second-round picks, and Reed is a rookie who showed promising signs in summer league.
The Suns are probably hesitant to take on long-term salary, with TJ Warren and Brandon Knight currently the only players on their books for the 2019-20 season. But Kidd-Gilchrist still has some promise at only 24 years old, and the Suns have the most cap space in the league.
Pairing Kemba with Booker is too intriguing a possibility for the Suns not to at least take a look.