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Why the Charlotte Hornets should NOT trade Kemba Walker

By Noah Driver

CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 3: Kemba Walker #15 of the Charlotte Hornets handles the ball against the Chicago Bulls on April 3, 2018 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 3: Kemba Walker #15 of the Charlotte Hornets handles the ball against the Chicago Bulls on April 3, 2018 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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CHICAGO, IL – APRIL 3: Kemba Walker #15 of the Charlotte Hornets handles the ball against the Chicago Bulls on April 3, 2018 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)
CHICAGO, IL – APRIL 3: Kemba Walker #15 of the Charlotte Hornets handles the ball against the Chicago Bulls on April 3, 2018 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Will the Charlotte Hornets trade Kemba Walker this season? Here is a team by team breakdown of potential deals.

The Charlotte Hornets have only ever had seven players make an All-star team. Kemba Walker, Gerald Wallace, Baron Davis, Eddie Jones, Glen Rice, Zo, and LJ. Kemba Walker is closing in on Muggsy Bogues as the team’s all-time minutes leader, and he has a chance to pass Mourning as the team’s PER leader before the end of his career (which is a bit misleading since, unlike Zo, Kemba has always been a Hornet–earlier, less-stats friendly years included).

To say the least, Kemba Walker is the man. He is the Charlotte Hornet. Perhaps LJ or Bogues or even Wallace resonate with fans as the first Hornet that comes to mind, but if we were playing with the Hornets on NBA Jam, you’d pick Walker first and figure out your second guy later.

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And, despite this status, he has been involved in trade talks since the beginning of the 2017-18 season. In the blow-it-up culture of NBA fandom today, if you don’t have a contender on your hands or a likely Hall of Famer on your roster, many see a complete tank as the solution to the team’s future.

Is Walker a top-10 player? No. Top-30? Maybe. He is a second or third-best player on a championship team (in a basketball world without a historically brilliant assemblage of talent at the top of the league).

So we blow it up, right? Trade Walker for “young assets” or to get worse so we can tank. That’s the answer.

Here’s the problem: the assets just aren’t there. And if they sort of is there, they aren’t worth the intangible cost of trading “the guy” in your franchise’s history in his prime. The trade partners have evaporated since the summer of 2017–probably the peak of Walker’s trade value–so what are we honestly left with?

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