All is not well in Charlotte. The team is handcuffed to a core that isn’t yielding much success, they can’t stay healthy to achieve any semblance of consistency and the cost to finance the underwhelming production is about to get a lot more expensive thanks to the luxury tax.
All told, Tim Bontemps of Washington Post thinks it’s time to flip Kemba Walker.
Like many other NBA teams, the Hornets are on pace to fall above the luxury tax line. That’s a palatable burden if a team is in contention for postseason success but not so much when they’re 14-23 and well out of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference.
If nothing changes in Charlotte, the Hornets could pay the luxury tax not only this year but next season as well. In fact, for 2018/19 they already have 10 players on guaranteed deals slated to make $116.4MM.
While the Hornets could theoretically make a push if all of a sudden they were blessed with good fortune in the health department but not even that would change the fact that many of their key rotational pieces are in or passed their prime.
Trading Walker, the team’s lone, true, ascendant star may seem counterintuitive but, as Bontemps writes, it would alleviate part of the team’s financial problems while also giving them a jump-start at a rebuild.
A hypothetical swap with the Knicks could potentially yield something along the lines of Frank Ntilikina, Joakim Noah and New York’s 2018 first-round pick. That’s a plausible package that could simultaneously bring two building blocks and save the team money.
In another scenario, Bontemps offers up the notion of packaging Walker with a costly veteran like Marvin Williams to help clear the books while still netting a building block or two.
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Kemba shouldn’t go anywhere. You have to find a way to get out from underneath the salaries of Marvin Williams and Nic Batum. Marvin and Nic make a combined 32ish million I think and they are clearly not worth it. Batum has regressed since his first season in Charlotte and Williams has not lived up to the money Charlotte paid him to keep him from leaving in free agency. Attach their contracts to an asset like a draft pick, Frank Kaminsky, Malik Monk or Dwayne Bacon, and try to get cap relief in return.
Lol Kaminsky? Why would anyone want him along with Batum’s contract?
Yeah Kamisky is certainly no asset.
Sixers fan here. The Hornets (or any team) should get the Knicks first round pick just for taking Joakim Noah’s ridiculous contract. Nobody wants that albatross. So then its just Kemba Walker for Frank Ntilikina, which is no bueno.
Knicks fan here. I’d agree, their draft pick would have to be included in any deal, however the Knicks aren’t as desperate as folks would think regarding Noah’s contract. They could use the stretch provision and dump him, which will most likely happen at the end of the year. I think if the Knicks added Hernangomez in the package mentioned above, then there’s something there. Two young talents and a top 10 pick with a contract that can be provisioned is a start. The provision I believe would get them under the luxury tax as well.
No because other than mkg not meeting the Lebron expectations he seems to have been given when he was drafted, kemba is their only real identity. But yes cuz its probably the only piece they can move that will make any sort of change. Unless someone takes a huge lob on Dwight being a difference maker in the playoffs
I don’t see how moving a guy who’s making $12M a year as an All-Star makes sense unless the Hornets can attach one or more of Zeller, Batum, D12, or MKG bad contracts in a deal and getting expiring deals and a couple of young assets back.
Taking on Noah would be counterproductive, especially as the Knicks don’t have many expiring contract dollars on their books (Kanter has his player option that while he most likely won’t pick it up based on the year he’s having, you can’t be 100% sure he won’t) to attach to a deal to help the Hornets with cap relief.
I see Phoenix as more of an option. The Suns made a lot of efforts to get a star PG this offseason, and could offer Monroe’s expiring deal along with Chriss, Ulis and a future first for Walker and another contract.
All the contracts Charlotte is looking to dump are multiyear deals, no one is taking on multiple years of a depreciating asset. It will be hard to dump any of them, just ask the Blazers, they were only able to dump Crabbe bc the Nets are poorly managed and offered that contract to Crabbe in the first place.