The Charlotte Hornets have not had their season go according to plan in 2017-18, as they find themselves 19-26 on the year. That’s good for 11th in the Eastern Conference.
As a team projected to be a possible playoff club in the East, it’s fair to call the season a disappointment to this point. Per usual in those situations, trade rumors have begun swirling about the Hornets’ best player. Over the weekend it was reported that point guard Kemba Walker was being shopped by the Hornets, likely in a package deal with some of Charlotte’s bigger, less desirable contracts.
Fans of nearly every team (and likely GMs as well) began salivating at the idea of adding the All-Star caliber point guard to their roster and folks hustled to the trade machine to figure out how to land him. However, it might be time to pump the brakes on Walker trade rumors for the moment, or at the least reassess what it would take to get him after Hornets owner Michael Jordan spoke with Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer on Monday to set the record straight regarding Kemba’s status with the club.
Jordan insisted Walker wasn’t being actively shopped by the Hornets. Instead, Jordan says they receive calls about Walker constantly and were now willing to at least listen to offers, but that it would take an awful lot to land him.
“I’m not looking to trade Kemba, but I would listen to opportunities,” Jordan said. …
“Obviously, the season has been a disappointment so far, and there have been teams asking about players. Also, we’ve been asking about players,” Jordan said, with the NBA’s trade deadline looming Feb. 8. “We ask teams who they like on our roster and they always say Kemba.
“It’s not like we are shopping him. We would not just give him up. I love Kemba Walker. I would not trade him for anything but an All-Star player.”
This is, at worst, damage control to keep Walker’s value high in trade negotiations, or it could be a genuine sentiment from Jordan that he doesn’t want to part ways with his point guard. In any case, we now know what teams will have to bring to the table to land Walker. Bonnell noted in his lead that it would take an All-Star, “such as the San Antonio Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard,” to land Walker, which while not a direct quote from Jordan seems like maybe on background that name was floated as an example.
If that is the level of player it’ll take to pry Kemba away from the Hornets, then it’s almost assured that he will remain in Charlotte past the Feb. 8 deadline even if there are reported tensions between Leonard and the Spurs. However, there is a fairly sizable gap between “All-Star player” and “Kawhi Leonard, last year’s second runner-up to the MVP award,” so there could be some flexibility there.
To throw some gas on this fire Jordan has tried to put out, Brian Windhorst of ESPN floated the idea earlier on Monday before the story broke that the Cavs could consider trying to include Isaiah Thomas, an All-Star last year, in a package for Walker. That would be quite interesting and would technically fit Jordan’s criteria.
The other piece to this is that Jordan isn’t the Hornets GM, that would be Rich Cho, but it’s clear the GOAT will have his hands in any negotiations involving Charlotte’s star attraction. If the plan was to unload a bigger contract like Nicolas Batum’s or Dwight Howard’s, getting that caliber of player in return seems highly unlikely. But if it’s a deal with Walker separately, it’s possible.
So, when trying to figure out if your favorite team can land the UConn product, be sure to double check to make sure you can include an “All-Star player” in the mix.
