ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski sent shockwaves through the NBA on Friday by revealing that the Hornets have made Kemba Walker (as well as several other players on their roster) available in trade discussions. In return, the Hornets are reportedly looking for a good young player or first-round draft pick that will set them up for another rebuild.
While there is no shortage of point guards in the NBA right now, Walker is an All-Star in the prime of his career. He has averaged 21.9 points, 5.4 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game over the last two-and-a-half seasons on 43.3 percent shooting from the field and 37.9 percent shooting from the perimeter. He’s been the lifeblood of the Hornets during that time, and he can absolutely help a team looking to make a playoff push in the second half of this season.
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Of all the teams in the NBA, there are five in particular that should show some interest in trading for Walker if the Hornets do indeed make him available before the Feb. 8 trade deadline. Let’s take a look at each of those teams and examine why they make sense for Walker.
Spurs
The Spurs are an elite team with two All-Stars already on their roster in Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge. Even without Leonard for most of this season, they are tied with the Timberwolves for the third-best record in the Western Conference. And yet, if there is a weaknesses on their roster moving forward, it’s at point guard.
Tony Parker has been the starter for the Spurs since he returned on Nov. 27, but he will now head to the bench. In the 19 games he missed at the beginning of the season, the Spurs handed the keys of the offense over to second-year guard Dejounte Murray, who will be the new starter moving forward, and backup guard Patty Mills.
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Parker is still capable of giving them solid minutes while they continue to develop Murray (Mills is at his best coming off the bench), but neither of them are as good as Walker is right now. It helps that Walker and Aldridge have all the makings of a dominant pick-and-pop duo, and that Walker’s ability to play with and without the ball in his hands — the latter of which Parker and Murray struggle with — give him the tools to thrive next to a high-usage player like Leonard.
The Spurs have plenty of reasons to believe Murray can be their point guard of the future, but they’re a veteran-heavy team built to compete now. If they’re hoping to hang with the likes of the Warriors and Rockets this season and next, putting the ball in Walker’s hands is the type of move they should be looking to make.
Pistons
This one is simple: Walker is a better all-around player than Reggie Jackson, who does a lot of the same things as Walker, only not at as high of a level. Considering how good the Hornets have been offensively over the last two seasons with Walker on the court, he would make a huge difference to one of the worst offensive teams in the league.
Knicks
With Kristaps Porzingis being the future of the Knicks, the front office’s entire focus should be surrounding him with the type of players who can maximize his potential on both ends of the court.
In trading for Walker, the Knicks would be addressing that need by pairing Porzingis, who is among the league leaders in scoring as the roll man this season despite ranking in the 34.4 percentile with 1.01 points per possession, with one of the best pick-and-roll scorers in the NBA. Walker is also a great 3-point shooter — especially when compared to Frank Ntilikina and Jarrett Jack — which would help him space the floor for Porzingis when he goes to the post, where he generates a high portion of his offense.
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It wouldn’t, however, be an easy decision for the Knicks to make because the Hornets would likely want Ntilikina to be included in any deal for Walker. Walker is obviously the better player right now, but the Knicks aren’t in the same situation as the Spurs given how much younger their core is. It would ultimately come down to how confident the Knicks are in Ntilikina becoming the Robin to Porzingis’ Batman, and how patient they are willing to be.
Pacers
Similar to the situation with the Pistons, this one makes sense because Walker would be an upgrade over Darren Collison. The Pacers might not have expected to be in this position heading into the season, but they’re only 2.5 games out of the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference with 35 games remaining on the schedule. Swap Collison for Walker, and the Pacers could make a run at home-court advantage.
Whether they could actually make that run would depend on Walker’s fit with Victor Oladipo. They certainly have the potential to complement each other — both have the tools to play on and off the ball — but a lot of Oladipo’s success this season comes from the fact that the Pacers have basically turned him into their point guard.
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Walker would handle the ball far more than Collison does currently, which would eat into Oladipo’s touches slightly and force him to find a middle ground between his role with the Pacers this season and his role with the Thunder last season.
If they could make it work? The Pacers would have a dynamic 1-2 punch in the backcourt few teams in the Eastern Conference could match up with. It might even be enough for them to get out of the first round of the playoffs, something nobody could’ve predicted when they decided to move on from Paul George in the offseason.
Jazz
This might be the most interesting option for Walker. It’s basically the Western Conference version of the Pacers given how much better Donovan Mitchell has been than expected this season.
Mitchell has been at his best as the primary ball handler for the Jazz, but Walker could space the floor for him better than Ricky Rubio can and take some of the playmaking burden off him. It would help Mitchell be a more efficient player, both now and in the future.
While it probably wouldn’t be enough for the Jazz to make a playoff push this season, a core of Walker, Mitchell and Rudy Gobert — plus Nicolas Batum or Marvin Williams? — would set them up nicely to bounce back next season. The question: can the Jazz put together a package the Hornets are looking for based on the players they currently have on the roster?
