I wouldn’t mind the Knick’s trade idea, if it was with only one first round pick attached. There is value in getting rid of a $36M contract next season, and potentially $37.6M in ‘22/23, and not bringing back any salary. It would give Brad a chance to reset the team by bringing in higher quality role players. I'm not sure what the salary cap situation would look like in this scenario, but I like the idea of the team having flexibility in trades down the line by having players in the $8-12M range.
except if the Knicks do that trade it means they struck out in free agency and in that Walker actually has real value to them such that I actually think it would cost them a pick, not the other way around. Walker doesn't have positive value to a lot of teams, but he does to some teams. The Knicks, I think, are one of those teams. I think the Clippers might be as well, especially if they flame out against the Jazz or Suns.
I don’t often agree with Moranis it seems, but this is generally the correct way to look at it. Kemba’s value will be different to different teams. The Knicks are going to try to get a significant upgrade to PG with their cap room. That might be Paul, it might be Ball, but it could also be someone acquired through a trade, and Kemba is an obvious option, jokes aside about using fit with Thibs. He will have value to them. He may have value to the Suns if Paul leaves. He might be someone the Clippers like (although I don’t think there’s a trade fit there, personally).
The other thing that gets lost in the discussion about trading Kemba is that the trade has to make sense for the Celtics. They’re over the cap this year, so dumping Kemba doesn’t get you cap space. Would you rather have Kemba and no cap space, or no Kemba, no cap space, and give up 1-2 draft picks, as the absurd Knicks trade in this article suggests? I think the answer should be pretty obvious. Do people want one year of Thaddeus Young so badly that they’re willing to give up a pick AND take on bad money just to move from Kemba?
The Celtics shouldn’t trade Kemba just for the sake of trading him. You don’t dump a guy because he’s not providing max contract value if he’s still providing significant value of some sort. Most likely Kemba will be a Celtic next year. Maybe he gets moved to a team with a different max contract that also isn’t living up to his deal, such as Porzingis. Maybe someone disagrees that he’s a negative asset and wants to give us something of value. But attach 1-2 picks to Kemba to move him — to what end? How is that going to help the Celtics going forward? Is there someone at the full MLE who’s that much better than Kemba and isn’t available at the taxpayer MLE that it’s worth it? I highly doubt it.