Potential Pacers trade candidates: Kemba Walker
By Jacob Breece
After an incredible and surprising season, the Pacers may be looking for a homerun addition. If Kevin Pritchard and the front office look to go all in, Kemba Walker could be the prize they are looking for.
The Pacers were overachievers in 2017-18. Any way you slice it, the season was a surprise and a pleasant one at that. Victor Oladipo proved he is a star in every sense of the word. Domantas Sabonis showed he was more than just a throw-in and Myles Turner again displayed immense potential.
Although the team gelled beautifully, there could be more. The Celtics look to make a run at a few titles once they get Kyrie Irving AND Gordon Hayward back. Philadelphia has two of the youngest stars in the league. Lebron may never leave the Eastern Conference.
This is why, although risky, Kemba makes sense. If the Pacers want to compete for championships, they’re gonna need more firepower and Kemba could be their opportunity to get it.
What a Kemba Walker to the Pacers deal would look like
Charlotte Hornets Receive: Darren Collison, Al Jefferson, T.J Leaf, 2018 first
Indiana Pacers Receive: Kemba Walker
Before we go any further, this is the most I would trade for Kemba. If Kevin Pritchard and co. could find a way to leave Leaf out of this I would love it even more, but to be fair to Charlotte we’ll leave him in. This may seem not seem like a ton for a two-time all-star in his prime, but here’s why it works.
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While this would certainly be hard to swallow for Hornets fans, the Pacers won’t part ways with Oladipo, Sabonis or Turner and Charlotte has almost no leverage. Thus, a seemingly minuscule return for an all-star caliber player in an expiring contract. But, as Pacers fans have come to see don’t judge a trade too quickly.
In a league strapped to bad contracts and limited cap space, the trade partners are few and far between. Charlotte and new General Manager Mitch Kupchak would surely like a restart and this could be a good beginning to one.
Darren Collison is an invaluable expiring contract as well as a quality starting point guard. Big Al spent three years in Charlotte before he came to Indy and is on a partially guaranteed contract at only 4 million. T.J Leaf looks like a promising young stretch big and is on the books for three more years if the Hornets want to keep him. And the first round pick is another chance to find a young player for the future.
What would bringing Kemba Walker to the Circle City mean for the Pacers?
This is the type of all-in move that could propel Indy to the top part of the East. The move would come with some pushback, citing “there’s only one ball” and “two ball dominant guards won’t work”. Well here’s why it would.
Think; Houston Rockets, Eastern Conference style. The personnel and play style is different, but the concept is the same. The Rockets have a weapon that almost no one else has. Houston deploys at least one of the James Harden/Chris Paul tandem for all 48 minutes of every game.
Nate McMillan and the Pacers should follow suit with that strategy. Play the duo together for around five or six minutes every quarter and allow either Walker or Oladipo to run the offense solo for the other parts of each period. Kemba is the secondary play-maker the Pacers desperately need and could make a huge difference leading a non-Oladipo unit. The Pacers were 0-7 with Vic out of the lineup completely and struggled to stay afloat every time he went to the bench. Kemba helps with that problem.
Together, the duo could be deadly as well. The Pacers relied heavily on the pick and roll last year, an action Kemba Walker excels in. Indy has one of the most talented young frontcourts in the association. That group could take off with high-level playmakers at the helm. Although Walker has had the ball in his hands a ton in his short career, working off the ball would be something he would need to get used to. But he can do it. He ranked in the 86.3 percentile on spot-ups this past season.
His career usage rate is 26.6 percent, two and a half percent more than Chris Paul. While it would be a transition for Kemba, it’s not impossible. Walker has improved from a 30 percent shooter from deep his rookie season to have back-to-back seasons over 38 percent. Having two attacking guards that can shoot and facilitate would allow Turner and Sabonis plenty of room to work in the paint as well.
More importantly, Walker fits the character description Kevin Pritchard set out to acquire when he began his role as the President of Basketball Operations. He’s smart, tough, and knows what it takes to lead his team to a championship. And it sounds as though he’s ready to get another opportunity to do it again.
Although there are huge benefits there, are obvious drawbacks as well
The reason why this is even being talked about in the first place is that the Hornets have been sitting in the middle of the pack for years; not good enough to advance in the playoffs, not bad enough to begin a full on rebuild. Just stuck. There is plenty of blame to go around, and the star player usually deserves some of it.
But the most pressing issue for Charlotte is whether or not they can afford to pay Walker after next year. Although they could free up the cap space, the real question is: should they? He is a free agent-to-be in the summer of 19′ and has yet to be paid like the perennial all-star he is. This may make it tough for Pritchard to pull the trigger on a deal, especially with Myles Turner being due a nice sized pay raise as well in the same summer. Trading away two long term assets for a one year rental would be hard to overcome.
Finding positives in the negatives
Yes, Walker will need to be paid after next season, but how much is the question. It’s incredibly likely that someone would throw him a max, or near max, contract. Maybe even Charlotte if he stays put. But if this deal was made and Kemba fit seamlessly into what the Pacers have going on, I don’t think it would be out of the question for Walker to take slightly less than what he would have gotten going to a non-contender. Even if max was what he wanted, the Pacers could find a way to make it work since they have almost no money on the books for the 2019 offseason.
Next season would be a trial run of sorts, and if it didn’t work out for whatever reason, Indy could still move on without any bad money.
Next: Potential Pacers trade candidates: Otto Porter Jr.
But, if it works like I think it could, the Pacers and Kemba Walker may find themselves competing for an Eastern Conference championship sooner rather than later.