Not even two years removed from bolting the Charlotte Hornets to sign a four-year, $140 million contract with the Boston Celtics in free agency, point guard Kemba Walker is already reportedly ready for a breakup with the Celtics after the team tried to trade him last offseason.
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At the time, losing Walker was a devastating blow for Charlotte. He is the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, was coming off an All-NBA Third Team selection, and was the face of the organization.
It was a frustrating situation all-around. The Hornets could have offered Walker a max contract which would’ve been an extra year and $80 million more than what the Celtics signed him for. It was reported at the time that Charlotte actually low-balled Walker, offering him less than $160 million for five years.
It seemed like it would take years for the Hornets to recover from the loss of Walker but instead, two years later, Charlotte is coming off a play-in berth and looks to have a young, solid foundation that can be built upon for years to come if the right moves continue to be made.
Meanwhile, the Celtics still owe Walker, who just turned 31, almost $74 million over the next two years, assuming he picks up his player option after next season.
The Hornets didn’t come away completely empty-handed from his free-agency departure, however. Here are four reasons why Walker leaving ended up working out great for Charlotte.
The Hornets acquired Terry Rozier in a sign-and-trade deal with the Boston Celtics when Kemba Walker departed Charlotte.
Many fans were upset that instead of letting Walker make his own decision in free agency, that the Hornets didn’t decide to trade him at the trade deadline to at least try and gain some assets for the all-star guard.
So, it came as a little bit of a surprise when Charlotte, at least, gained point guard Terry Rozier in a sign-and-trade with Boston in a one-for-one swap.
The frustration came when the Hornets signed Rozier to a three-year, $56 million deal because at the time, Rozier had never been a full-time starting point guard and it felt like another classic Charlotte move of overpaying for an unproven player.
However, Rozier has completely outperformed his contract two years into the deal and has not only become one of the go-to guys on this Hornets team but has also been a leader in the locker room.
Charlotte general manager Mitch Kupchak could’ve embraced the rebuild by just letting Walker walk but he saw potential in Rozier and it’s paid off.
Rozier has averaged 19.2 points, 4.1 assists and 4.4 rebounds in 132 games played with the Hornets while shooting a career-high 45 percent from the field in 2020-21.
He’s embraced switching roles from the primary facilitator to shooting guard with Devonte’ Graham and LaMelo Ball playing point guard and has stayed relatively healthy.
Had Kupchak not decided to pull the trigger on acquiring Rozier when Walker left, the Hornets rebuild might be in a different place right now.
Had Kemba Walker not left Charlotte, it’s likely the Hornets wouldn’t have been in a position to draft LaMelo Ball.
After Walker left following the 2019-20 season, the Hornets actually won a little bit more than experts predicted, going 23-42 before the COVID-19 pandemic cut the season short.
With that record, Charlotte had the eighth-best odds to win the 2020 NBA lottery but found luck, jumping all the way to the third overall spot to select LaMelo Ball.
In a draft that was very top-heavy, but not a strong draft overall, it was a blessing in disguise that the Hornets moved up in the lottery for the first time in 21 years.
Had Walker committed to staying in Charlotte, the Hornets very likely would have had more than 23 wins and would have either made the playoffs as a low seed or had worst-odds in the lottery with a better record.
Even if they did luck out, they wouldn’t have a need to draft a point guard with Walker locked up for the foreseeable future.
Things worked out just fine.
Anthony Edwards and James Wiseman were the first two players drafted, leaving Ball as the next-best player available.
Opting to play overseas and not play in college, Ball was only 18 years old and there were a lot of uncertainties about how he could adjust to the NBA, but after his rookie year, he’s proven that he can be the face of the Hornets franchise for a long, long time.
The Charlotte Hornets made a big splash in free agency last season signing former Celtics forward Gordon Hayward to a four-year, $120 million deal.
Even without signing Walker to a max deal in 2019, the Hornets still had a lot of bad contracts on the books paying the likes of Nic Batum, Cody Zeller, and Bismack Biyombo.
Charlotte was an over-the-cap team all of 2020 but managed to free up some space when they waived and stretched the contract of Batum before the 2021 season.
Now, with Zeller and Biyombo off the books, the Hornets are under the cap this offseason and will have plenty of money to spend if and when they choose to do so.
When Mitch Kupchak signed Hayward to a large deal last offseason, there were a lot of question marks about whether he could stay healthy (which he didn’t) but he did make a huge impact on the Hornets team and kept them in the playoff race before his season-ending ankle injury.
Hayward is expected to continue playing a pivotal role in Charlotte’s rebuild and is a solid veteran to do so.
Had Charlotte signed Walker to a max deal, it would have severely handicapped what moves Kupchak could make over the next five years.
Walker is a great player but he showed too much inconsistency with his shooting and late-game performances with the Hornets to deserve a max deal.
With up-and-coming players like Miles Bridges, PJ Washington, and LaMelo Ball on the roster, Charlotte will need all the money they can to start signing players to long-term deals.
Since signing with the Boston Celtics, Kemba Walker has dealt with ongoing knee injuries.
Injuries are a part of the game and unfortunately, Kemba Walker has been hampered by a multitude of knee injuries.
In the last two years, Walker has struggled to stay healthy in Boston, dealing with a left knee injury that required offseason surgery before the 2020-21 campaign.
Walker missed the beginning of the season while recovering and only managed to play in 43 of 72 games for the Celtics, never playing in a back-to-back, while also missing a few first-round playoff games this season.
In his last season with the Hornets, Walker played all 82 games and stayed relatively healthy throughout his Charlotte career, but his chronic left knee injury seems to be catching up as he ages.
Had the Hornets signed him to a five-year deal, he would be 34 by the time the deal ended, and likely on the downward side of his career.
Walker’s play has clearly been affected by the injuries and even though nobody wants to see the all-time great Hornet have his career go down this path, Charlotte has fresh, young legs running the point guard position in LaMelo Ball.