2019 NBA Mock Draft: Murray State’s Ja Morant is rising
10. player. 170. . F. Kentucky. Keldon Johnson
The biggest decision on owner Michael Jordan and his trusty general manager Mitch Kupchak’s plates this summer is whether or not to keep Kemba Walker. It is a difficult decision considering it will be tough to add talent around Walker in a small market without much young talent to count on getting better or use in a trade. Yet making the playoffs and remaining competitive seems to be enough for Jordan, Walker and the Charlotte franchise so the tea leaves right now show Walker remaining in North Carolina.
That means the priorities change from engineering a rebuild to retooling the roster as albatross contracts given to Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Nicolas Batum come off the books the next two summers. Charlotte has found good players at the end of the lottery two straight years, walking away from the 2017 and 2018 drafts with Malik Monk and Miles Bridges, two guys who fell from where they were projected to be taken and give the Hornets some lineup flexibility and shooting at key positions on the wing.
Johnson would continue to make shooting the strength of this team around Walker’s prolific driving ability. The freshman is shooting 41 percent from deep on 4.5 attempts per 40 minutes for a Kentucky team that loves to get shots up from behind the arc. He is also getting to the lane often for the Wildcats and knocking down a solid 74 percent of his free throws. Together, those numbers show a 3-and-D baseline for a guy who is old for a freshman (he will be 20 as a rookie) and room to grow.
While Walker is already nearing 30, giving him another chance at consistent playoff runs in his late prime with modern talent like Monk, Bridges, Johnson and Cody Zeller around him is a sound strategy to maximize the rest of Walker’s career.