Charlotte Hornets rumor: Detroit Pistons interested in trading for Kemba Walker
A rival Eastern Conference team is reportedly interested in acquiring the Charlotte Hornets’ all-star point guard.
The Detroit Pistons have emerged as potential suitors for Kemba Walker. According to Vincent Ellis of the Detroit Free Press, the Pistons have interest in the Charlotte Hornets‘ all-star point guard who was recently made available in trade talks. The source close to the situation said that Detroit “certainly will look at it.”
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that Charlotte’s open to trading Kemba before the February 8th trade deadline. The Hornets are looking to offload one or more of their bad contracts in a package deal involving Walker. They are looking to move multiple pieces and get either a “good, young player or a first-round draft pick” in return.
Charlotte has already put Nicolas Batum, Dwight Howard, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marvin Williams on the trade block but hasn’t yet been successful in making a move. With the Hornets’ future salary cap situation a mess, they must move one or more of these players in order to not reach the luxury tax next summer.
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The 27-year old is averaging 21.7 points per game, 5.8 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals while shooting 42.4% from the field, 34.9% from three and 85.1% from the charity stripe for Charlotte this season. He leads the Hornets in points, assists, steals, field goals made, three-pointers made and free throws made.
Despite the team’s struggles, Walker has been a bright spot for the past three seasons as he’s rose to an all-star level.
Kemba has already expressed his commitment to the Hornets and said that “I would definitely be devastated if I was traded.” (Twitter/ @DanFeldmanNBA)
The Pistons have the assets in terms of players, young prospects, expiring contracts and picks in order to help facilitate a trade with Charlotte. One would think that Detroit must be willing to take on one of the four contracts mentioned above in order to complete a deal involving Kemba as shedding salary seems to be the Hornets’ number one priority at the moment.
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With Walker in his prime and playing some of the best basketball of his career, I’m sure there are plenty of teams who are interested in trading for him. We’ll see if any other potential suitors come forward before the trade deadline. One thing that the Charlotte Hornets will have to consider is if the Detroit Pistons’ potential offer will be good enough to let Kemba go to an opposing team in the same conference.