Boston Celtics: 2 Kemba Walker trades to the Los Angeles Clippers

Why the Boston Celtics do it

Bringing on Victor Oladipo in a trade sending out Kemba Walker would be a major victory for the Boston Celtics defense. The six-foot-one Walker has long been ineffective dealing with being switched onto opposing wings, and the Los Angeles Lakers continually hunted for the mismatch that would land Walker on LeBron James/Anthony Davis/Kyle Kuzma/etc.

Olapdipo would not be as easily pushed around, although he would certainly need to be reined in on the offensive side of the ball given his sub-30% shooting from the 3-point line in a cartoonish eight attempts and his near-three turnovers per game.

Like the last deal, Serge Ibaka would be brought on, this time to replace Daniel Theis. In Ibaka, the Cs would have a true power forward to pair with Tristan Thompson but the optimal crunchtime lineup would be an Oladipo-Smart-Brown-Tatum-Ibaka quintet…assuming Smart can recover from his injury.

Why the Los Angeles Clippers do it

Like the last deal, Kemba Walker is the draw, but P.J. Tucker would be a deployable frontcourt body off the bench, and Ben McLemore would provide shooting in the wake of Lou Williams’ departure.

This deal would likely be followed up with a big man free agent signing to replenish big man depth.

Why the Houston Rockets do it

At this point, Christian Wood is the player the Houston Rockets need to build around–if they so choose to build around anyone currently on the roster. Oladipo is a goner after the season (barring a miraculous run) and P.J. Tucker is likely the next remnant of the Mike D’Antoni era to be shipped off.

This package brings back several tradeable assets (Williams, Beverley, Theis, Zubac) while further restocking the draft cupboard.

Luke Kennard could be a long-term asset or another key to furthering the team’s rebuild. The rest (Edwards, Green) are essentially roster filler.