NBA trade rumors: 7 potential Kemba Walker trades

With the Charlotte Hornets reportedly making Kemba Walker available, here’s a look at seven potential trades.

It was only a matter of time before NBA trade season opened back up again, and with the Feb. 8 deadline approaching, the dominoes are starting to align.

According to ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Charlotte Hornets have made All-Star point guard Kemba Walker available and are encouraging teams to make an offer. The Hornets are reportedly looking for young players or draft picks as compensation, and they’re also hoping to attach an undesirable contract to a potential deal.

This course of action makes sense for Charlotte. Michael Jordan‘s team last made the playoffs in 2016 as the 6-seed, bowing out of the first round in a competitive seven-game. Even with Nicolas Batum healthy and Dwight Howard brought aboard, Steve Clifford’s health issues have contributed to an underwhelming 18-26 start to the 2017-18 campaign.

With the Hornets 4.5 games out of the East’s last playoff spot, this core is heading nowhere fast, with plenty of long-term money on the books and Walker’s contract set to expire after the 2018-19 season.

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As such a blowup is probably the wisest route, with Walker being the team’s most attractive trade chip to jumpstart a rebuild, and also their best shot at detaching from unwanted long-term salary.

Though he’s taken a step back from his career numbers in 2016-17, Walker is still averaging 21.7 points, 5.8 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game on .423/.343/.848 shooting splits. A team in need of a point guard that believes it could re-sign him in 2019 should certainly come calling.

Bearing all this in mind, who could or should be picking up the phone? To sort it all out, we’ll take a look at seven potential Kemba Walker trades. Why seven? Because that’s how many trades I came up with, and it’s also the number of years it will take the Hornets to become relevant again once they trade Kemba. So let’s get to it!