Kemba to the Celtics
Now this is an interesting one. Considering Kyrie and Kemba are similar players and it would appear that the Celtics will basically be doing a swap here electing to let Kyrie go into free agency.
Both players have played a total of 8 Seasons and it's pretty safe to say Kyrie has been the better player but a lot of that has to do with the one championship Kyrie has won. He also had slightly better numbers but digging a little deeper the Celtics might be better off with Kemba.
The positives for Kyrie is the deep proven playoff experience. Kemba has that too but only in college not finding much success in Charlotte but he hasn't had a lot around him in terms of talent either. Maybe with a player the caliber of LeBron James next to him in the lineup Kemba could have some more playoff success to show for himself as well.
About that Playoff experience for Kyrie as well, oddly enough his team looked even better without him the year prior and this season it honestly felt like he shot the Celtics out of the playoffs in the last few games. Maybe they can talk Kemba into playing a little more under control and team ball oriented.
Also bringing in Kemba can be another plus cause I'm sure he's happy and willing to finally not only be apart of a elite organization but a team that is already set in place to make a potential deep playoff run. It looks like on paper at least that it would have to be something Kemba himself does to mess up the chemistry but that goes to the next point…
What chemistry? There is many inside sources that Kyrie had wore thin with the organization so why wouldn't it make sense to bring in a guy that is a very similar player that would jump at the opportunity over a guy who clearly looked like he wanted out down the stretch?
I'm definitely interested to see how Kemba will fit in rotation with the Celtics. He's already a star caliber player and the Celtics have shown in recent years to really get the most out of their Point Guards much like they did with Isiah Thomas and it'll be interesting to see where Kyrie takes his all time great handles next as well.
Kemba Walker averaged 25.6 PPG (Career High) 5.9 APG and 4.4 RPG for the Hornets
4 year $ 141 M Deal