The Charlotte Hornets are in a bit of a weird situation when it comes to Kemba Walker. He’s set to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, and between the team’s salary cap crunch and Walker’s comments about his frustrations with watching the playoffs from home, it’s not exactly hard to see a scenario where Walker is playing elsewhere come the start of the 2019 season.
Charlotte could try to get out in front of this by flipping Walker and either getting assets back or moving one of their more unpalatable contracts in a trade. But if you listen to new Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak, anything that involves Walker wearing a non-Hornets jersey isn’t in the cards.
Kupchak made it clear that, along with Hornets owner Michael Jordan, he views Walker as “the focal point of this franchise going forward,” per ESPN.
“I don’t think it is anybody’s goal to lose him in free agency,” Kupchak said. “But going forward, in the community, in the franchise, this is a player that we hope is with us — not only for the next couple of years, but ends his career here.”
Obviously Kupchak wouldn’t say the team wants to trade Walker or anything like that, but he is their best player and has been in Charlotte for his entire NBA career, so it makes sense the Hornets would want to keep the face of the franchise around. It remains to be seen if they can actually accomplish that, but at the very least, Kupchak is saying all the right things.
