NBA Trade Rumors: Kemba Walker To 76ers Would Include Fultz and Covington
The Philadelphia 76ers may have a way to snag Kemba Walker according to Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report. In his article, Buckley suggests the Sixers would send a package of Markelle Fultz, Robert Covington, Wilson Chandler, and Furkan Korkmaz for Walker and Nicolas Batum. While that may seem like a fair trade, it will set the Sixers back a few years development-wise.
Kemba Walker is a good PG but he’s far from being mentioned with the best. While he’s a great scorer, the Sixers are in need of a facilitator if someone were to come in and take the spot of Ben Simmons. While moving Simmons is not on the table, Brett Brown may have to adjust his roster. If he were to place Walker as the starting PG, that would either force Simmons to SF of PF. In doing so, that will leave the Sixers placing either Batum or Dario Saric in the other slot.
[MarkAds]Now, what could be done is putting Walker at SG, leaving Ben to run the point and Batum at SF. The Sixers would be a dangerous defensive team and their offense would be one of the best in the league. However, is there enough shots to go around? Brett Browns’ offense is perimeter-based and by placing three shooters around Simmons and Embiid, the Sixers could be as dangerous as the Houston Rockets. But the bench is where the troubles would start.
Fultz is set to take aim at 6th Man of the Year this coming season and losing valuable weapons like Korkmaz and Chandler will damage the second unit. What worked for the Philadelphia 76ers last year was health. But who’s to say they will stay that way this season? While many have been down on Covington, he has transformed himself into one of the top defensive players in the league. Batum is good, but he’s been injury-prone over the course of his career.
Another reason this trade is a bad idea is money. It’s true that the Sixers have cap space but Walker will be a free agent in 2019 and is sure to want a max or super-max deal. Can the Sixers really afford to give him that type of money and keep their core together in the next season or two? Then you have Batum who is currently on the books until 2021 with an average salary of $24 million per. He’s not the long-term answer here for the team.
On the outside looking in, this seems like a fair trade but for the Philadephia 76ers, it will destroy what took years to build.
[BXReporter] [matchedcontent]
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
