Kemba Walker (Kemba to formalize agreement on Sunday, pg 40)

[Donoghus]

What's the chance that Kemba & his people are using the media/Celtics as leverage simply to get Charlotte to cave rather than him being truly interested in Boston?

[Silky]

A deal around langford for a pacer big makes sense both ways imo.

But ideally if you bring in kemba you bring in a center that can cover tatum playing at pf and you run with

Kemba
Smart
Brown
Tatum
Center.

[ChillyWilly]

What's the chance that Kemba & his people are using the media/Celtics as leverage simply to get Charlotte to cave rather than him being truly interested in Boston?

💯 this! Danny using it to his advantage as well.

[dreamgreen]

I'm fine with Walker he can be a beast, hope he does not become a ball pounding ball hog. But what in the world are we doing about an empty back court??

[ederson]

What's the chance that Kemba & his people are using the media/Celtics as leverage simply to get Charlotte to cave rather than him being truly interested in Boston?

💯 this! Danny using it to his advantage as well.

How does this help DA?

[Phantom255x]

What's the chance that Kemba & his people are using the media/Celtics as leverage simply to get Charlotte to cave rather than him being truly interested in Boston?

Definitely a possibility. I'm not going to assume we're getting him until we actually see the official announcement. 

Still 3 days until official FA begins. A lot can still change in that time.

Also, I know our FO is usually tight-lipped, but it's interesting that all this is coming from Woj/Shams/Stein + Charlotte's beat guys, but nothing from our reporters (Himmelsbach, Washburn, Bulpett, Jackie Mac, etc.)

[hwangjini_1]

I would have no problem with Smart and Yabu for Myles Turner. If draft assets have to be figured out fine. Maybe we send a future 1st in exchange for a future 2nd. Whatever. But Turner would seem to be a good fit, though he isn't the greatest rebounder. I think guys his size in the paint should be getting close 10 RPG and he is more a 7.5 RPG type guy.

then maybe sabonis would be preferable at 9.3 rpg.

I think he would be but out of Indy's three big men, I think Turner will be the one moved. I think Indy will stick with Sabonis and Bitadze.

i think you are correct and salary may be one of the reasons, sabonis is paid less for a longer time. i like turner though.

but, we shall see.

[tonydelk]

What's the chance that Kemba & his people are using the media/Celtics as leverage simply to get Charlotte to cave rather than him being truly interested in Boston?

Definitely a possibility. I'm not going to assume we're getting him until we actually see the official announcement. 

Still 3 days until official FA begins. A lot can still change in that time.

Also, I know our FO is usually tight-lipped, but it's interesting that all this is coming from Woj/Shams/Stein + Charlotte's beat guys, but nothing from our reporters (Himmelsbach, Washburn, Bulpett, Jackie Mac, etc.)

This is all very possible but having a big time FA interested in the C's is a benefit because of all of the negativity out there that big time FA's don't want to sign in Boston.  This could hopefully alleviate some of that doubt that the media has created.

[Tr1boy]

surprised that Kemba 1st choice would be the Celtics

but also good to see

If the Celts can go out and get Vonleh with the mid level

This would be a pretty nice offseason


Potential starting lineup

C- Vonleh
F- Hayward
F- Tatum
G- Brown
G- Walker

Bench

C- timelord
F- Gwilliams
F- Semi/Langford
G- Smart/Langford
G- Edwards/Waters

[nickagneta]

What's the chance that Kemba & his people are using the media/Celtics as leverage simply to get Charlotte to cave rather than him being truly interested in Boston?

Kemba has Jeff Schwartz and Excel repping him. I have never heard of them doing stuff like publicly leveraging one team with another, though maybe behind closed doors he/they do.

I think Walker knows how dysfunctional Jordan has been and wants a max contract and somewhere to play where the management isn't a disaster like it is in LAL, NYK, Charlotte, and Phoenix. That doesn't leave a ton of places with max cap room that also have good to great management and coaching situations that would want him back.

LAC has SGA as their future PG and are focused on Horford and Kawhi. Brooklyn has settled on Kyrie. Indy most likely is signing most of their own free agents. And Philly is concentrating on bringing back Butler and Harris and have Simmons at PG.

So I think Boston is a very viable choice and Kemba is serious about Boston and not just using the team to cut a better deal in Charlotte.

[GreenFaith1819]

Prime Kemba Walker?

Yes SIR, please.

Dude just turned 29 in May...currently in his prime...

"IF" Kyrie is indeed out the door - why NOT Kemba? Why isn't the voting like 70 yes's and 10 or 20 no's?

The last player - IIRC - that was in a similar situation (age and contract-wise) with Kemba that we won the bidding war on was none other than Al Horford...and Big Al was HUGE for us during his time here..

Get Kemba if we can.........

Dude has Celtic DNA in him...hard worker...low-maintenance...team-player....seems to STILL be improving...

Nearly EVERY player that has walked through Coach Stevens' doors has improved in BOS...Kemba would be no different.

Get him, give him the rock and get the heck out the way.

I can get behind this man.

[Moranis]

Unreal you guys wanting Kemba so bad.  Let's move on as quickly as possible whatever the cost so we have good feelings again

It’s not about feelings, it’s about building a winning team.

Yea, to be honest I find it very confusing why any team would not want a top 15 player in the NBA that was still performing exceptionally with a horrible supporting cast in Charlotte.... he is also 29.. what is the issue of him signing with us?

It is all just a matter of if that is the best use of the cap space.  It might very well be, but it also continues Boston's trend of signing good to very good free agents, but not landing any great ones and at the end of the day you need great players to really contend for championships.  Walker is a very good player, but he isn't making this team a contender, so is the team better off using the cap space in a different manner.  I think that is the question.

It's a fair question, but is there any alternative way to use the cap space that you can think of that would help us more? Unless you think KD or Kawhi are coming here, I'm not sure what else we can do

I think I'd take a flyer on Cousins.  He at least has the potential to be great (and then sign someone like Rubio to man the point).  That said, the other option would be using the cap space as a dumping ground to collect assets, which can be used in the future (either as players to build around Tatum or as assets in trades).  Again, Walker may very well be the best use of the cap space, especially if Cousins isn't interested, but as we saw last year (with Horford) Boston isn't a contender so adding a player similar to Irving isn't going to make the team better (Irving is slightly better than Walker, though he is less healthy so they are probably about a wash as to total value).

[Boris Badenov]

Unreal you guys wanting Kemba so bad.  Let's move on as quickly as possible whatever the cost so we have good feelings again

It’s not about feelings, it’s about building a winning team.

Yea, to be honest I find it very confusing why any team would not want a top 15 player in the NBA that was still performing exceptionally with a horrible supporting cast in Charlotte.... he is also 29.. what is the issue of him signing with us?

It is all just a matter of if that is the best use of the cap space.  It might very well be, but it also continues Boston's trend of signing good to very good free agents, but not landing any great ones and at the end of the day you need great players to really contend for championships.  Walker is a very good player, but he isn't making this team a contender, so is the team better off using the cap space in a different manner.  I think that is the question.

It's a fair question, but is there any alternative way to use the cap space that you can think of that would help us more? Unless you think KD or Kawhi are coming here, I'm not sure what else we can do

I think I'd take a flyer on Cousins.  He at least has the potential to be great (and then sign someone like Rubio to man the point).  That said, the other option would be using the cap space as a dumping ground to collect assets, which can be used in the future (either as players to build around Tatum or as assets in trades).  Again, Walker may very well be the best use of the cap space, especially if Cousins isn't interested, but as we saw last year (with Horford) Boston isn't a contender so adding a player similar to Irving isn't going to make the team better (Irving is slightly better than Walker, though he is less healthy so they are probably about a wash as to total value).

Yuck.

[mmmmm]

I'm surprised there are some people who are so against this signing if it actually happened.  Kemba is NOT Kyrie.  The C's are going to lose about 60 shots per game with Horford, Kyrie, Morris, Rozier.  If Kemba took 20 of those there will still be a lot to go around.  Kemba took 23-27 shots per game in Charlotte because of the lack of talent around him.   The C's pace next year should be at 100 shots per game. Kemba is a good fit for this team. 

Now as much as I like Kemba I would rather have Brogdon if we could get him.  I this he's the perfect PG fit for this team.  Kemba would be great but for some reason Brogdon has been my dream PG for this team.

As someone else pointed out though, the only issue with going after an RFA is you're caught playing the waiting game because the other team has 3 days to match. In just a matter of 24 hours, alot of other guys could get signed, who were your back-up plans.

Just FYI:  The right-to-match window is only 2 days now.

[Boris Badenov]

It's not a reason to sign Walker, but there would be some delicious irony in Irving leaving, only for us to sign the guy who's basically his closest replacement except with better chemistry, leading us to a deep playoff run while Irving either (a) languishes in BKN for a year while KD rehabs, or (b) goes crawling back to Lebron.