5 NBA players in need of a trade in 2018-19

2. Kemba Walker

If it’s what Kemba Walker wants, he could re-sign with the Charlotte Hornets and go down as the greatest player in franchise history. He’s already their all-time scoring leader, and remaining loyal to an organization with no clear direction thanks to all its deadweight contracts would only endear him to the fanbase even more.

Walker has repeatedly said he loves playing in Charlotte and according to The Athletic, plans on being a Hornet for “a long time.” He’s easily their best player, averaging 22.1 points, 5.6 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game last year on .431/.384/.864 shooting splits. He’s a dynamic ball-handler, individual playmaker and finisher around the basket.

However, it’s pretty clear to everyone involved that trading Walker is the only way he and the franchise will ever be able to really compete in the near future. For Kemba, the Hornets aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. He’s already 28 years old, so his window for competing is now.

Unfortunately, inflated contracts for players like Bismack Biyombo, Marvin Williams, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Nicolas Batum and Cody Zeller would be difficult to move, preventing Charlotte from giving Kemba a better supporting cast. The internal growth required from those players to vault the Hornets into the upper tier in the East is also entirely unrealistic.

The Hornets have little hope of amending an ugly cap situation without trading Kemba Walker. Letting his $12 million contract expire frees up minimal room, especially with that Batum-MKG-Zeller-Williams-Biyombo pu-pu platter of contracts likely to still be on the books for 2019-20.

If the Hornets trade their two-time All-Star while he still has value, they’d not only doing him a solid, but they’d also be able to try and attach one of those awful contracts to free up extra cap space. Even if they failed to shed unwanted salary, they’d still be getting a decent return for one of the NBA’s best point guards — in the form of young players or draft picks to aid the rebuild.

The odds of the Hornets ridding their books of all the deadweight deals in time to make use of Kemba Walker’s prime are severely low. Batum is already on the decline and his deal is atrocious, while younger options like Zeller and MKG aren’t good enough for other teams to really express much interest in.

As painful as it might be for everyone involved, the path to a better future for both Walker and the Charlotte Hornets starts here. Otherwise, their options are risk losing him in free agency for nothing, or re-sign him to a max deal and lock him into a mediocre situation for the rest of his prime.