Clippers Rumors: Should the Clips trade for Kemba Walker?

The LA Clippers were set to be in the middle of many offseason rumors this year.

When Kemba Walker was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder, it didn’t quiet any rumors for the Clips at all.

The Clippers are looked at as a real destination possibility for the four-time All-Star point guard.

ESPN’s Zach Lowe adds fuel to the rumors, sees the LA Clippers as players for Kemba Walker this summer.

Analysts aren’t so sure that the LA Clippers are going to be able to bring back Reggie Jackson next year, which is a driving force of the Walker rumors. Lowe believes that both LA teams are going to be interested in Kemba.

“I think both the L.A. teams are gonna be sniffing around Kemba Walker,” said Lowe. “I think that’s the market. Now I don’t know if they can get up to the money. I don’t know if they have whatever Oklahoma City wants, but that’s the level, that’s the kind of distressed whatever that I think they could target.”

It’s pretty clear that Jackson would like to come back, as he credited the Clippers to “saving him,” and he’s also good friends with Paul George.

The issue is the money. The Clippers have other impact free agents to re-sign, and it’s unclear how much Reggie Jackson will ultimately cost. At one point in his career, Jackson signed a five-year/$80 million contract with the Detroit Pistons in 2015. If he’s going to be that expensive, the Clippers may not be able to handle that.

So in could come Walker, the former All-NBA point guard who is one of the best players in Charlotte history, but didn’t necessarily live up to the hype in Boston.

He had a nice first season there in the 2019-2020 season, where he was an All-Star for the fourth consecutive time. Therefore, it wasn’t long ago when he was a star. His performance would suggest that he’d be a nice option for the Clippers should they not be able to re-sign Jackson.

One issue, however, is his injury concerns. Walker only played 43 games this year due to knee injuries.

The other issue is the resources that the Clippers do or don’t have. They’d need to make a trade with the Thunder.

The Clippers don’t have any tradeable first round draft picks until 2028. They’re also over the cap. It would take several players to be able to pull off the trade for money purposes.

Walker is due $36 million next year, and has a player option for the next for $37.6 million.

To pull this off, they’d have to trade the likes of Marcus Morris Sr., Patrick Beverley, Ivica Zubac, and Terance Mann. I could see the Clippers possibly being willing to trade these guys, except probably not for Mann.

A lot would be at stake if they made this move. They’d be breaking up a little bit of chemistry within the team while spending a lot of money on it. Injuries kept this team from maintaining their chemistry this year, so it may not be in the Clippers’ best interest to risk that again next year.

Walker is an incredibly talented player, and always has been. Kemba on the Clippers is something that could definitely work and be beneficial to the Clips. That being said, that’s a huge contract to take on, and it may not be worth it to trade the role players who were so crucial to the team’s run this year.

There are two sides to the argument, and I trust the Clippers to do what’s best for the team.