If Kemba Walker does end up leaving the Charlotte Hornets, he may not be headed to Los Angeles or New York after all.
According to Marc Stein of The New York Times, the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks are “at the front of the line” of teams trying to lure Walker away from the Hornets.
The Celtics are set to have newfound max cap space this summer as a result of both Kyrie Irving and Al Horford getting set to leave via free agency, the latter of which came rather unexpectedly.
Boston is obviously going to need a point guard and a scorer to replace Irving, and Walker seems like the next best thing.
As far as the Mavericks, Dallas has room for a couple of max players, but one of the two will likely be Kristaps Porzingis, who will be a restricted free agent this offseason.
Article Continues BelowShould the Mavs re-sign Porzingis, they would have a very impressive young tandem of Porzingis and Luka Doncic, and bringing Walker into the fold would give them a heck of a trio.
Walker has spent his entire career with Charlotte, having been drafted by the organization back in 2011, and he has said he's making them his priority in free agency. The Hornets can offer Walker a five-year supermax worth $221 million.
The 29-year-old is coming off a 2018-19 campaign in which he played all 82 games and averaged 25.6 points, 5.9 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals over 34.9 minutes per game while shooting 43.4 percent from the floor, 35.6 percent from 3-point range and 84.4 percent from the free-throw line en route to his third straight All-Star appearance.
He owns career averages of 19.8 points, 5.5 assists, 3.8 boards and 1.2 steals per game.