The Kemba Crusade #7-Open Season

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It’s been a very long time since I crusaded here on Tru School Sports, since May 24th to be exact. In TKC #6 I was lobbying for us to draft Gary Harris with the 9th overall pick and he wound up falling to 19 to the Denver Nuggets. So in this article we will cover all things related to Kemba and the Hornets since the last Kemba Crusade from drafting P.J Hairston and Noah Vonleh, to Josh McRoberts signing with the division rival Miami Heat and the ridiculous max contract offer to Gordon Hayward and how that impacts one of the leagues rising stars at the point guard position. So let’s get into it!!

Kemba Gets Some Help

Back on June 26th the NBA draft took place and if you’re a Hornets fan then the Hornets got 2 players that drastically improve Kemba’s outlook on offense. I have always said that Kemba has never played with a shooting guard that can start on another NBA team (I’m talking to you Gerald Henderson). Now he has P.J Hairston who can play shooting guard/small forward and shoot lights out from the 3-point line. I interviewed PJ back in January covering the Texas Legends and saw many of the games that made up his 21.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 35.8 % from 3-point line stat line. He is easily the best perimeter player the Hornets have had in the last 3 seasons from a scoring standpoint.

If P.J’s shooting translates to the NBA then Kemba has a formidable backcourt partner for the first time in his entire career. He gets a luxury that John Wall, Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard have had their entire career which is an above average wing scorer in the starting line up. P.J is one of the only players in the first round of this years draft that has already proven he can produce against NBA level competition.

With the 9th overall pick in the NBA draft the Hornets selected Noah Vonleh out of Indiana to bolster their front court depth. Vonleh is the second “one and done” Indiana Hoosier power forward they have drafted in as many years along with Cody Zeller. Unlike Zeller last year Vonleh is more ready for the NBA from a physical standpoint and will be an upgrade over Josh McRoberts on the boards. Vonleh last season with the Hoosiers averaged 11.3 points, 9 rebounds, 1.4 blocks, .9 steals and shot 48.5% from the 3-point line. His perimeter shooting along with his ability to face up and play with his back to the basket make him an intriguing weapon for Kemba Walker in pick and roll situations and gives him someone who can stretch opposing defenses further. Vonleh is still 18-years old though so don’t expect him to come in like gang busters.

Welcome to Charlotte @NoahVonleh I love that pick! — Kemba walker (@KembaWalker) June 27, 2014

Kemba approves the Vonleh pick as you can see by his tweet up top.For the first time in his career Kemba Walker’s supporting cast actually is worth something and being that he already is a top 10 or fringe top 10 point guard (depending on who you talk to) with lackluster talent around him for most of his still young career makes him an intriguing player in his 4th season. The talent around the former UCONN Husky is improving, the question now is what will he do with it?

It was announced several days ago that Josh McRoberts would be taking his talents to South Beach as he signed a 4-year deal worth $23 million mid-level exception with the Miami Heat. The deal gives McRoberts a player option for the 4th season, but he was vastly overpaid. After almost being out of the league 2 seasons ago McRoberts cashed in on what may be his only chance for a big pay day to potentially play with Lebron James. As I chronicled in my article last month on him its been a serious struggle to get to where he was last year. Last year he proved he could be a glue guy on a playoff team, he does a lot of things well but nothing great. He is a jack of all trades tha you can’t really appreciate if you just look at stats. One person who does appreciate McRoberts is Kemba Walker who surely benefitted from McRoberts passing ability. The fact that the starting power forward on the team could pass allowed Kemba to move off the ball and be that 2nd scoring option the team needed him to be in order for the Bobcats to make the playoffs last year.

Damn — Kemba walker (@KembaWalker) July 7, 2014

Here is how Kemba felt about that tweet in one word

@KembaWalker Don’t sweat it homie, you have what it takes to make guys around you better. Josh was just looking out for himself.#TrustKemba — Brendan Taylor (@ThatboyBTaylor) July 9, 2014

Kemba seemed pissed so to give him some clarity, I tweeted him some reassurance to cheer him up. Hopefully he saw it (He does follow me).

Bluff Or Insanity?

Insanity isn’t a word I like to use very often to describe anything, but that word seems more than appropriate when speaking about the max offer sheet Gordon Hayward was offered by the Charlotte Hornets. 4 years/$63 million is the proposal made by the Hornets and the Jazz are very likely to match that. However should Gordon Hayward land in Charlotte then this might just be one of the biggest overpays in a very long time.

I chronicled how I felt about this in my video up top.

I’m still holding out hope for Lance Stephenson to come to the Hornets but that’s not looking so good at this present time. No matter what happens or how I feel about the potential Hayward signing the fact of the matter is that for the first time in his NBA career Kemba Walker has formidable talent all over the starting lineup and that makes me very happy about the future production to be had from the Bronx native.