NBA Trade Rumors: Kemba Walker To Clippers, Kevin Love To Hornets In Wild Four-Team Deal From Bill Simmons
When it comes to NBA trade rumors, a wild blockbuster deal has been proposed involving four teams and 15 players. Among them are Kemba Walker, Kevin Love, and DeAndre Jordan. However, that deal has been proposed for fun by sports journalist Bill Simmons. In his deal, he speculates on how the Charlotte Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers, and Portland Trail Blazers could all gain a boost to their rosters or situations going forward. However, it would involve four teams working together to swap a total of 15 players including several NBA All-Stars.
In Simmons’ proposed deal, the Charlotte Hornets would move Kemba Walker and Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Clippers. The Portland Trail Blazers would get center DeAndre Jordan from the Clippers and point guard Derrick Rose from the Cavs. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers would get Nic Batum and Cody Zeller from the Hornets, as well as Lou Williams from the Clippers and Aminu from the Blazers. However, the Charlotte Hornets would get a serious makeover in the form of a combined seven players joining their squad. That would include All-Stars Kevin Love and Isaiah Thomas from the Cavs.
Simmons posted a screenshot image on his Twitter page to show everyone involved in the crazy deal he created online.
A 4-team mega-trade for Super Bowl Sunday…
—Cavs get a blood transfusion + keeps Nets pick (but takes on future $$$)
—Clips get Kemba + Cleve’s 1st pick + the right to flip 1sts w/ Port once from 2018-2020
—Charlotte dumps a ton of future $$$$ + gets Love
—Portland gets DeAndre pic.twitter.com/4gRbs4ec4i— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) February 4, 2018
It’s clear from this proposed deal that Bill Simmons is having fun with the situation and showing that anything is possible. In his speculative trade, he’s trying to keep each of the teams and players happy. However, that’s never really possible in professional sports, is it? Hornets star Kemba Walker has already said he’s happy to be a part of Charlotte and would be torn apart if traded. However, his team’s owner Michael Jordan mentioned he wouldn’t trade Walker unless an All-Star was coming back to the Hornets in the exchange.
In Simmons’ wild speculation the Hornets would get two All-Star players and five others to fill out their roster. The team may be in need of an overhaul based on their disappointing season so far. Still, would Michael Jordan and company be willing to make such a drastic change to their roster right now? The team may simply be playing things out to see where their chips fall for the next NBA Draft should the team fail to reach the postseason again.
What Walker said he doesn’t want to happen is exactly what happened to Thomas of the Celtics after last season, where he indicated how he felt be traded to the Cavaliers. He seems OK there now, but the Cavs are anything but OK at the moment. After last night’s blowout loss to the Houston Rockets, they clearly will need to shake things up with the current roster. Would he be happy to be traded away from another team? It’s possible he might be based on the team’s struggles.
Kevin Love has been in trade rumors for a while now so it wouldn’t be all that surprising that the team’s rebuild would include shipping Love elsewhere. Right now, teams have to worry about his injury situation, but as seen in Simmons’ trade, the Hornets would pick up enough players to fill the void. DeAndre Jordan is another player that’s been in the rumor mill, but he’s still on the Clippers’ roster while his former All-Star teammates Chris Paul and Blake Griffin have both been moved elsewhere.
While Simmons tweeted his fun blockbuster deal on Twitter earlier on this Super Bowl Sunday, he followed it up with a later tweet. In that one, he suggested other sports fans try their hand at making crazy deals.
It’s hard to come up with 4-team 15-player trades that seem even remotely conceivable – feel free to create your own on this thread.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) February 4, 2018
Basically, as long as the ESPN trade machine is up and running and a deal passes through it without any major issues, that trade could technically be made. However, this four-team 15-player deal is one of those types that would probably shock fans beyond belief and blow up the current state of the NBA if it really happened. Stay tuned for February 8th to see if Simmons is the greatest sports prognosticator ever.
