Leap Year - The Kemba Walker Thread III

[JDR720]

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[Joest2003]

Pretty decent for a 6th man

[316Hornets]

"Hornets star Kemba Walker poured in a game-high 46 in only three quarters, one night after teammate Dwight Howard registered 32 points and 30 rebounds in a win over Brooklyn. Walker made history in his own right Thursday, as his outburst occurred in only 28 minutes, which is the fewest minutes a player has needed to score 45 or more points since the advent of the shot clock in the 1954-55 season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau."

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22876570/charlotte-hornets-beat-memphis-grizzlies-61-points

[ronnymac2]

Wow. Crazy games by Howard first and then Walker.

[Eoghan]

Chucker numbers.

[MasterIchiro]

As a UConn fan I can't stress enough how furious it made me the two years where every game thread morphed into an attack on Kemba. Defending him was absolutely exhausting, like fighting off a gang. But with Kemba on my team I knew we would end up kicking ass. Man did he survive some awful crap. And those seasons were before year 6, two years of attacks before year six. How many games? How many threads? How many attacks? Yet MKG is in year 6 already and hasn't ONCE been the target for a gang from this fan base. Not once. I can't explain it. Anyways, some dipstick fan from another team tried telling me Kemba's not a #1 scorer and all these thirsty creepers from other teams want to discourage us and make us dismantle the team by trading Kemba. What a bunch of horse manure. Kemba is the only feature that gives value to tickets these days. It's certainly not MKG.

[MasterIchiro]

Pretty decent for a 6th man

We should trade him because he has value. MKG has no value so we should keep him. Makes sense right?

[catch20two]

“At this point, I want to win. I want to be in the playoffs,” Walker told the Observer on Monday morning.

“I’m tired of not being in the playoffs. ... I hate watching them on TV.

“I’ve been there twice in seven years, and it’s just not fun” missing out.

Walker is building his dream house in Charlotte.

“Hopefully, I’ll be here for a long time.”

The Hornets will hire a new general manager this offseason and the most critical and immediate decision will be what to do with Walker.

“Whenever we get a new GM, we’ll see what direction he wants to go,” Walker said, “and I’ll make the best decision for me.”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nba/charlotte-hornets/article206893709.html

Sounds like Kemba is open to leaving. He’s tired of how things are being ran.

[MasterIchiro]

Duplicate

[MasterIchiro]

Well now we know why they won't tank. Kemba can't stand losing.

[Mulhollanddrive]

Can Walker sign an extension this off-season? If he doesn't you'd have to think he'll be traded.

[MasterIchiro]

Package that pick for a #2 scorer, then sign Kemba to a Max extension.

[Joest2003]

Batums contract has and will continuely destroy this franchise from inside out. "Sorry Kemba we can't afford any help. We spent it all on that guy over there who averages less than 12PPG and has absolutely no positive impact on the game, s***, we have a better record with him out of the lineup. Anyone who was in board and okd the batum signing needs to be banished from basketball for an eternity.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

Can Walker sign an extension this off-season? If he doesn't you'd have to think he'll be traded.

He could, but it would be a bad idea for him. The current CBA makes it such that he can earn more money from the Hornets by becoming a free agent and resigning than he could by signing an extension. On top of that he gets to see what his other options are at the same time. For the max and near-max guys there is 0 incentive to do an extension.

[HornetJail]

Can Walker sign an extension this off-season? If he doesn't you'd have to think he'll be traded.

nope. We're only allowed to offer him an extension of his current contract (which is very cheap and he wouldn't agree to).

The only way it is possible is by dropping a crazy amount of salary to get down to about $85M-90M in guaranteed salaries, and re-negotiating Kemba's contract to give him a max this year, and then he can be extended. We would have to somehow be able to shed $30M in cap space immediately. The only possible (and semi-reasonable idea) is if a team like Chicago decides to straight up absorb Dwight's 1-year contract with their cap space without giving us anything back. Then we'd be only minor trades away from being able to do this.

I think if we're able to do it, then it's likely that Kemba takes his money. I would dump Howard and one of Lamb/Frank/Marvin without hesitation if that's what it took to re-sign Kemba.

[Joest2003]

I would dump Howard and one of Lamb/Frank/Marvin without hesitation if that's what it took to re-sign Kemba.

Then we are in the exact same position. Sucking and missing the playoffs. Walker won't sign to that and we can all thank the batum contract. Mark my words that contacts will destroy this franchise to the point where it might be sold to Seattle. The destruction process has already begun.

[HornetJail]

I would dump Howard and one of Lamb/Frank/Marvin without hesitation if that's what it took to re-sign Kemba.

Then we are in the exact same position. Sucking and missing the playoffs. Walker won't sign to that and we can all thank the batum contract. Mark my words that contacts will destroy this franchise to the point where it might be sold to Seattle. The destruction process has already begun.

Well we obviously don't do those trades without Kemba's okay.

The optimist in me doesn't believe Kemba would turn down an $18M raise next season (from $12M to $30M, the max) and a guaranteed 3 years after that at $30M+/year for the chance to play out the season here and become a free agent. That's a massive gamble, especially for someone who's had multiple knee surgeries in recent years. If we gave them that opportunity, I'd put money on him playing it safe and sticking around.

And long-term, I don't believe that dumping Howard is the worst thing this team could do. He was for the present, not the future.

Under a new coach, I'd bet on Kemba/Lamb/Batum/MKG/Zeller with a competent PG/Monk/Bridges?/Kaminsky/Willy getting to the postseason next year. That's assuming Howard is flat out dumped for nothing, and Marvin is moved for only a backup PG and filler, which is a low estimate.

[Joest2003]

Under a new coach, I'd bet on Kemba/Lamb/Batum/MKG/Zeller with a competent PG/Monk/Bridges?/Kaminsky/Willy getting to the postseason next year

That lineup has a zero percent chance of making the playoffs next season. That new GM better find someone to take batum and trade MKG for a SF who can shoot 3s if we ever plan on making any type of progress whatsoever. I'm a bobcat/Hornet fan my optimism is far gone. I'm dealing with reality here

[Robot Rock]

Batum's contract is not going to get this team turned into the Seattle Sonics. if anything, it might improve our chances of a higher pick because he sucks and we couldn't afford better players.

At the end of the day we need to do everything we can to keep Kemba here. He's the cornerstone of the franchise and the fanbase.

[fatlever]

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