The Detroit Pistons have desperately missed its starting point guard, Reggie Jackson. In Jackson’s absence, the team has struggled to score, and more importantly win. However, with reports that Kemba Walker is available for trade, the Pistons might have solved two of its problems: finding another scoring option, and adding another star talent.
Sound the alarms Detroit Pistons fans, there is a star point guard available on the market!
Per Adrian Wojnarowski, the Charlotte Hornets are making all-star Kemba Walker available for trade.
"Overloaded with bad contracts and untradeable assets, the Charlotte Hornets have made All-Star point guard Kemba Walker available in trade discussions, league sources told ESPN.Charlotte has been encouraging teams to make offers and appears eager to discuss attaching Walker to a larger trade in which another team would take on one of the Hornets’ several less desirable contracts, sources said."
The Pistons will almost certainly make an offer for Walker, particularly if the team can include Reggie Jackson in the deal, who would obviously become obsolete if Walker came to town.
A deal such as this could help both teams in a few different ways.
For the Pistons absolutely would be upgrading its point guard position behind Walker, who would be an unrestricted free agent next year.
Stan Van Gundy wants to win now, and a move like this would certainly aid in his pursuit of that. )As an aside, if Van Gundy would unleash Luke Kennard, I would love to see that backcourt tandem would look like long-term).
For the Hornets, the team would get a talented, albeit often-injured, player in return. Though not ideal for the Hornets, Jackson’s deal is better than Nicolas Batum’s contract, that the team would likely be able to offload in a deal such as this.
If the Hornets could get a cheap contract in return such as Stanley Johnson, or a first round pick, even sweeter for the team.
I think there could legitimately be a deal here, though I would also think that the Hornets could likely get a sweeter deal elsewhere.
For a team short on cap space, acquiring a bad contract might not make a lot of sense. However, Van Gundy isn’t the type of coach to pass on a deal that makes his team markedly better.
Next: The Pistons must make a move, or risk losing the season
This seems like a deal that he would try to get done.