Going into the 2021 offseason, most New York Knicks fans had a handful of point guard options they’d have liked to see come aboard but nobody had Kemba Walker coming home to NYC. That’s what made the signing so magical.
Unfortunately, even after a 5-1 start to the new season, the magic that was bringing the hometown hero back to play in The Garden ran out. Walker proved to be a shell of his former self and had a hard time meshing with the rest of the team on the court.
Walker’s always been a defensive liability but he more than made up for it in other ways for the majority of his career. It seems as if he’s on the last leg of his prestigious NBA career.
The Knicks decided shortly before returning from the All-Star break that they’d be shutting the guard down for the rest of the season, thus affirmatively ending his tenure in New York. Strangely enough, Walker turned down the option of a buyout and signing with a contender.
I’m not sure if this has to do with his ego not allowing him to take a backup role with a playoff team or if it’s purely about the money and not wanting to take a pay cut.
3 offseason Kemba Walker trades the New York Knicks should consider
So, this is what brings us to the topic of today’s article. The Knicks need to make substantial moves this offseason if they plan on improving at all. Not only do they have to find consistent minutes for players like Quentin Grimes and Cam Reddish, but they’re also going to have a lottery pick that they’ll have to find a spot for as well.
The front office is going to spend the time between now and the offseason trying to find new homes for several players on the current roster. The most obvious player in need of a trade is, of course, Walker.
The problem New York is going to face is that a lot of the guys who were brought back on extensions last year have less trade value than they had before they were re-signed. Moving on from some of the veterans on the team may prove to be a difficult task.
At this point, the Knicks would have a hard time getting even just a 2022 second-rounder in exchange for one year of Walker. Therefore, they’re going to have to get creative.
Here I’ll be exploring 3 realistic trades that the Knicks can consider this offseason for Walker as well as some of the veterans that I’m sure the front office would like to move off from.
A trade with the Lakers
Walker is a well-respected player across the league and handled his benching earlier this season as well as being shut down like a true professional. I would have to imagine New York will take this into consideration when moving him.
The goal in moving the 11-year veteran would be to send him somewhere of his liking while also receiving back the proper compensation.
One thing Leon Rose has been good at during the past two seasons is not being on the losing end of a trade and I don’t see that changing any time soon. I could see the Knicks getting involved in a couple of three-team trades to help match salaries or to absorb an unwanted contract.
They may even have to attach a second-rounder to get rid of Walker if need be. That wouldn’t be the best situation but ultimately, it is what it is. This is the bed that they made and now they have to lay in it.
To be clear, this wouldn’t be a singular trade but a move that would lead to more moves from both teams. The Lakers need to acquire assets they can flip or that they can attach onto trades in the future. They also could use a veteran point guard like Walker to lead the second unit.
The Knicks on the other hand would likely attach Talen Horton-Tucker to another one of the veteran contracts that they’d like to move such as Nerlens Noel or Alec Burks. The third team would likely have to have legitimate playoff hopes and fancies what Horton-Tucker can do over what they could get out of what would be a late first-round pick from Dallas.
There wasn’t a ton of interest in THT at the deadline this year but there were some rumors that Toronto had some interest in him. That means that the Knicks could kick the tires on a trade with the Raptors. I’m not sure for who as of yet because I haven’t thought that deep into it but this is an example of a trade that I could see happening during the offseason.
The big fish
Yeah…so…I know I was beating the Damian Lillard drum pretty loud all of last season and it never happened. In fact, it never even got close to happening. Lillard stayed in Portland but things are different now. The Trail Blazers stunk while he was healthy this season and stunk even more once he went down with an injury.
Shortly after the six-time All-Star was shut down for the season, the front office decided to make some puzzling trades. Such as ones that made you really wonder if this is it…this is when Lillard will actually get traded.
They’ve spent the better part of the last decade trying to build a team around Lillard and have never been able to put enough talent around him for Portland to make a serious splash in the playoffs. So, they traded away his longtime backcourt-mate in CJ McCollum as well as other ‘win now’ pieces in exchange for younger talent.
It also seems as if the front office really likes what they have in 22-year-old Anfernee Simons and that they want to see what a team built around him could accomplish. Trading McCollum to just replace him with Simons next year is silly. Lillard might very well be gone…so why not to the Knicks?
Losing Immanuel Quickley hurts, we know this. However, think about it. This trade would allow New York to play both Reddish and Grimes in more prominent roles immediately.
It would also allow for the Knicks to move on from several of the bigger contracts on the team all at once while allowing the flexibility of building around a Big Three (Randle, Barrett, and Lillard).
The best part is, the Knicks wouldn’t be limited to just this move. They could work out a trade involving Noel if they don’t see him as a part of their future. They could also work out a sign-and-trade for Mitchell Robinson or just not bring him back altogether.
The team would keep the majority of its current young core all while bringing in an elite talent like Lillard.
With how well Julius Randle played last year and how well Barrett has been performing thus far in 2022, having both of them play off arguably one of the top 10 players in the league could elevate New York to a height that it hasn’t seen in over a decade.
As far as Walker, Portland would likely just cut him and let him sign with the team of his choosing as it’ll be the final year of his current contract. While this trade may be unlikely, using him as a salary filler in a deal seems like the most likely of circumstances.
Walker’s second homecoming
Yeah, so, this trade is definitely the least sexy of the bunch but also, in my opinion, the most likely of the three to actually happen. It fills an immediate need for Charlotte, sends Walker to a playoff-caliber team, and the Knicks could get back some semblance of value in the trade.
The Hornets’ second-rounder is currently owned by New York but has a top-55 protection on it so unless Charlotte wins out for the rest of the season, the pick stays with the organization.
In this case, the Hornets would just lift the protection, which would give the Knicks two second-round selections in this year’s draft.
The top-55 protection would be lifted by next year but New York currently has seven possible second-round picks in 2023 alongside two first-rounders…they don’t need this pick next year.
As it stands today, the Knicks would then have two picks in the mid-40s and could either use both selections and continue to develop their young core in the G-League or they could consolidate the two picks to get them back up into the late first or early second round.
Charlotte does this trade because right now, they are weak at the point guard position. They have LaMelo Ball but beyond him, they don’t have any other true PGs on the roster. The team is currently using Terry Rozier as their starting shooting guard and are taking him off the court early in the rotation to just insert him back in with the second unit.
Trading for Walker allows for them to keep Rozier with the starters more often and also gives the Hornets a nice scoring punch off the bench.
Walker also fits a lot better with Charlotte’s run-and-gun offense. In fact, he’d fit in much better than he did with Thibodeau’s slow-paced iso-ball offense that the coach has run this season.
Sidenote – as it stands today, the Hornets would have to make roster adjustments in order to take on Walker’s contract so this trade wouldn’t be possible unless other moves are made beforehand.
This trade could also be a part of a three-team deal if need be to make the salaries work. Neither of the two teams would have to move mountains to make Walker’s nine million contract fit into Charlotte’s roster next year.