Rumor Mill Gets Workout Kemp Trade Talk Heavy As Draft Approaches

Chris Webber, Antonio McDyess, Marcus Camby. Names are beginning to surface alongside Shawn Kemp’s.

With the NBA draft less than one week away, it’s trade-talk season, and Kemp is the force behind the league-wide rumor mill. It started two weeks ago when the all-star forward for the SuperSonics demanded to be traded.

Speculation is rising. The problem is, for every trade whisper, there is a loud reason it won’t work.

The most prominent speculation was a report out of New York that Kemp and center Jim McIlvaine could be going to Washington (McIlvaine’s old team) for Webber, a forward. There are huge obstacles to overcome on that one, not the least of which would be matching salaries.

Together, Kemp and McIlvaine will make $6.9 million next season. Webber is due to make $9 million or 31 percent more. According to league rules, to make a trade work, the difference in salaries involving teams that are over the cap cannot exceed 15 percent, plus $100,000.

Casting doubt on the rumor is the fact that guard David Wingate is said to be part of the deal. Wingate is about to become a free agent and can’t be traded by the Sonics.

Another negative is that Washington general manager Wes Unseld is not enamored of McIlvanie. He knows him well and doesn’t want him back, even if it is to get Kemp. Although Unseld believes Kemp has had a better career than Webber, he feels Webber had a better season last year and probably will continue to improve.

Unseld told reporters Thursday that he has not talked to any team about trading Webber.

What makes it work for Seattle is that Webber, at age 25, is 3-1/2 years younger than Kemp and is under contract for five more years.

A deal for Camby, Toronto’s second-year, 6-foot-11 forward, may be more workable and certainly cleaner.

It would fill needs for both teams. Camby would fill - to a degree - the Kemp void at forward; he’s cheap, with two years left on a $6.5 million deal, and he’s young, with potential.

The Raptors are $9 million under the salary cap, so they could pay Kemp the money he believes he deserves, and he would be a needed drawing card in Toronto.

Sonics general manager Wally Walker, who is making the requisite circuit of the league by phone, has talked to Toronto. It is believed that Raptors general manager Isiah Thomas would be willing to trade Camby in a straight-up deal for Kemp.

Walker said yesterday that his policy is to not talk about deals or players.

One general manager said a Kemp-for-Camby deal would have “a 70-30 percent chance of getting done.”

The two also have been suggested to be part of a three-way deal, with Kemp going to Toronto, Camby to Denver and Nuggets forward McDyess coming to Seattle.

McDyess, however, will be at the end of his three-year deal after next season. Walker has insisted he doesn’t want to trade away six years of Kemp for possibly just one year of another player - McDyess or anyone else.

But the Los Angeles Lakers might make it all moot. Lakers GM Jerry West is willing to move guard Nick Van Exel and center Elden Campbell for McDyess and the Nuggets’ No. 5 draft choice. West would then use the selection to bring in North Carolina high-school sensation Tracy McGrady, a 6-8, 210-pounder.

McGrady worked out for the Lakers’ coaching staff last week in Los Angeles.

The Nuggets also are shopping center Ervin Johnson in anticipation of Campbell’s possible arrival.

The Boston Celtics privately are shopping their No. 3 and No. 6 draft picks. The Celtics don’t believe there is enough quality at those spots, so they want to see what kind of veteran talent they can command. However, the Sonics are not believed to be talking with the Celtics about Kemp.

Golden State would move forward Joe Smith to Seattle in a heartbeat, but the Sonics wouldn’t be willing without a sweetened deal.

One important consideration for Seattle is how Kemp would react to a trade to a team that is over the cap. Such a team would be under the same collective-bargaining restrictions as the Sonics. They can only increase Kemp’s salary by 20 percent at the end of his contract - after the 2002-2003 season.

Kemp, who was paid a huge fee last year by his shoe manufacturer, might feel he is financially comfortable enough to refuse to report all season, if necessary.