Sam Amick: "Kemba More Likely To Leave Than Stay"

[Basbear]

On 3/26/2019 at 4:14 PM, Thelt said:

I would rather see him walk than sign a supermax deal.  Kemba is very good but he is not able to carry a team on his back to the playoffs.  Imagine 32 year old Kemba having lost a step making $40 million....

This is how I've felt for AWHILE. This is end-of-prime Kemba and cannot do better than constantly fighting for the 8th(at best) seed. Why would it be wise to pay him 40+ million years later?? I shared that with a few Hornets fans last year and I thought they were going to burn me at the stake.   

Yes, the last contract was a great value, do not WAAAAY overpay as a "thank you" for taking 12 million per while Kemba was honing his skills. 

Take some tough 2-year medicine and build this team correctly. 

[M_Loop]

22 minutes ago, bull123 said:

What if Jordon were to commit to pay luxury tax?

Im thinking if he wanted to do that for say 1 year 
as 45m opens up with the expiring of marv, mkg, biz at end of next season 19/20.
Keep it mind Willy and Bacon also expire at 19/20 if they decide to resign them.

[Ship]

I’ve said this before, if we want to win with Kemba, we have to pay the luxury tax for at least long enough to move all our bad contracts and replace with younger guys and players worthy of more money. Otherwise we’ll just be resigned to rolling the dice in the draft over and over.

[AggieLean]

Might as well offer him the max.

The time to get rid of him was last year, and should’ve been tanking this season. 

[AggieLean]

Smart thing is to not give him the max.

[yasuhara2241]

Like I said previously, but will restate. 

Kemba is amazing. It is a shame we couldn't surround him with better players. The Hornets actually tried many times but failed miserably. 

The time to trade Kemba was last year for a lotto pick. Now we either pay him big bucks or he walks away for nothing. Sign and trades are off the table because who are we gonna take back for $30m plus? 

So we are left with 2 options. 

A. Re-sign and hope our young guys develop and we can sneak in the playoffs around the 6-8 seed. Some years we make it and some we don't drafting around 12 again. 

B. Let him walk for nothing. The city and many fans would be upset. We roll out with the worst team in the league and hope we don't get shafted in the lottery and even if we don't get shafted hope our Front Office will make the right pick. We will suck really bad for the next 2-3 years. 

Which option do you all choose? 

[yasuhara2241]

19 minutes ago, Thelt said:

I would choose to keep him on a big contract but not a supermax contract.  See what we can get back for our expiring contracts, or just let them expire and then hope to improve the team significantly in league year 20/21.

I have been on the trade Kemba bandwagon for all of last year up to the trade deadline. I never truly wanted to but I thought that was the only way to finally get out of the treadmill. We could have a jump with a lotto pick last year and stink in a deep draft this year. But...

Now, we are in a situation to lose him for nothing and I am not as sure about trading him. 

Does anyone know how the 2020 draft is looking? 

[Proudiddy]

I've kind of settled on what Thelt has been suggesting...  I've vacillated back and forth between diehard loyalty and paying Kemba whatever it takes to keep him, to sign him and trade him, and now back to keep him at a sub-max/team-friendly deal...  the key in all scenarios to us turning it around though is hitting on our draft picks.

[CBDellinger]

I hope kemba leaves and lands with a legit contender.  Best for him and the hornets.