Kemba for CP3 idea by John Karalis

[Jvalin]

Here's the quote from his podcast.

Trading Kemba Walker to OKC for Chris Paul, I don’t know if that’s exactly the move that the Celtics want to make. Over in OKC I can see them obviously shopping Chris Paul, and obviously a win-now team is going to be looking for him. The question is interesting though, would you rather have one year of Kemba or one year of Chris Paul, no contracts, no nothing. You’re just picking one year of one of those guys, and I picked the one year of Chris Paul. Chris Paul is kind of perfect for Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. He has that level of knowledge that they need. I would say it’s worth the $41 million almost, to just crack the heads open of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and to pour the knowledge that Chris Paul has into their heads.

However, it’s not just gonna work that way. He’s older. He has had injury problems in the past. He felt better this past season. That’s great. However, you’re really running into the possibility of that not working moving forward. It was a good year for him, but at this money at his age, what the Celtics are trying to do, and for the financial situation, trading Kemba Walker for Chris Paul doesn’t work. I just don’t see them working out a deal that makes sense.

[footey]

Doubt either team would be interested in doing this.  Why would OKC take on a longer max contract? They want to drop salary and rebuild; this would be moving backwards. More likely to trade Paul to team with cap space (e.g., Knicks).

Also doubt Celtics would give up on Kemba after one year. He started off well before knee injury.  Pretty brutal to trade him one year into his deal.

[Birdman]

Kemba is not going anywhere

[Vermont Green]

If it was one year to one year, I would go with Chris Paul but the margin is slim.  But it is not one year for one year.  If we trade for Chris Paul, he is likely done and then we have nothing, both in terms of the player and also the salary slot.

[pearljammer10]

Whoever John Karalis is, he’s trying to get clicks to his page.

It has apparently, and unfortunately, worked.

[Roy H.]

The only way the Celts do this is if Kemba’s knee if absolute garbage. 

[Moranis]

OKC has like 15 future draft picks (and I'm not exaggerating), throw in a couple and the trade makes a bit more sense, especially if you finagle one of the better ones.

[mrceltics2013]

I just don’t see how OKC benefits for having Kemba instead of Cp3. I get if Kemba had a waaay shorter contract or was in his prime but neither one of those are happening so I don’t make much sense from an OKC perspective.

The only reason they would do it is if they are getting more draft picks out of it and if there the case the only thing they would care about is making the salaries match up. I’d clear out the entire bench to get as close as possible to making salaries match without moving anyone of importance if there the case.

[wdleehi]

For OKC, the only real reason is if they think they can then flip Walker for the type of assets they want that they might not be able to get for Paul. 

[jambr380]

I think I'll roll with Kemba. Not only is he 5 years younger, he is also owed $20M less than Paul over the next two years (I realize he has an extra year in 22-23 worth $37M). Also, up until this season, Kemba had almost no injury history. I suppose it's possible he slows down immensely because of his knee, but I am going to bet on his health; especially over Paul - who surprisingly did not have a major injury this season. And it's never a good thing when you are surprised that a player plays a full season w/o an injury.

[Donoghus]

It's an interesting idea. However, my utter disdain for CP3 wants him to never wear the Celtics green.

[PhoSita]

I don't really want to bring in another control-freak / unusual personality who would expect the team and the team culture to revolve around him, even if it's just for a season.

Great thing about Kemba is that he's a vet with bona fides but he's also really good natured and has LESS playoff experience than our main guys.  Consequently he seemingly does not step on toes or expect things to be done his way and in his style.

This is Tatum and Jaylen's team (in that order) and I think it's for the best if it stays that way.