Kemba Walker is lurching closer to irrelevance as the Charlotte Hornets avoid buyout talks by creating a trade package that will send him to the New York Knicks. With his play, he’s pushing for two more years of relevance in Charlotte before moving on. The question now becomes what team can sign him this summer?
Kemba Walker, the point guard for the New York Knicks, has been flirting with the possibility of leaving the team. A recent report from ESPN states that he is leaning towards a buyout from the Knicks. This would be a huge blow to his potential career and also make him more irrelevant in the NBA. Read more in detail here: kemba walker signs with celtics.
The New York Knicks’ Kemba Walker is the latest fading talent to join the “Not With Team—Mutual Disdain” club. Walker and the Knicks are said to have agreed that he will not play again this season. That adds more fuel to what had been a nice homecoming story for the former Rice High School standout.
Walker’s career trajectory has resembled that of a cliff during the previous three seasons at the age of 31. His two seasons with the Boston Celtics were cut short due to knee injuries. His impact with the failing Knicks was limited as a result of his injury troubles.
It’s a well-known story. As he approaches 30, the small guard is unable to accomplish the things that enabled him to prosper — or at the very least, survive — in the NBA. The former UConn standout is the most recent person to walk (or hobble) along that road.
In his second NBA deal, Kemba Walker became a star.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUEA AHZ6r0
*{padding:0;margin:0;overflow:hidden} html,bodyheight:100% img,spanposition:absolute;width:100% ;top:0;bottom:0;margin:auto;bodyheight:100% html,bodyheight:100% html,bodyheight:100% html,bodyheight:100% html,bodyheight:100% html,bodyheight:100% html,bodyhe spanheight:1.5em;text-align:center;font:48px/1.5 sans-serif;color:white;text-shadow:0 0 0.5em black;text-shadow:0 0 0.5em black;text-shadow:0 0 0.5em black;text-shadow:0 0 0.5em black;text-shadow:0 0 0.5em black;text-shadow
Late in his junior season at UConn, Kemba Walker rose to national fame. With four defeats in their previous five games, the Huskies were seeded ninth in the 16-team Big East Conference Tournament.
The Bronx native turned around a failing squad, scoring 130 points in five days to lead UConn to the title and an automatic NCAA Tournament entry. Walker was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after guiding the Huskies to their third national victory with a 32–9 record.
He announced his intention to enter the NBA draft. Cardiac Kemba, at 6-feet and 184 pounds, had two factors going against him. He began his career by playing three seasons of collegiate basketball. While this increased his floor for scouts, it also reduced his ceiling when compared to 19-year-olds fresh out of college.
Then there was the matter of scale. Walker was drafted ninth overall by the Charlotte Bobcats. In his first four seasons, he was an ineffective volume shooter for a club that only made the playoffs once. In 2015–16, he had his breakthrough season, scoring over 20 points per game for the first time.
Walker was an All-Star and the lone scoring danger for a club that would miss the playoffs for the following three seasons. In 2018–19, he was named to the All-Star Game and was named to the All-NBA team.
But even it wasn’t enough to persuade Hornets owner Michael Jordan to part with his money. Walker instead signed with the Celtics in a rare two-way sign-and-trade deal, crossing paths with Terry Rozier on the way to Boston.
In two pandemic-shortened seasons with The Hub, he was restricted to 99 games and only appeared in three of their postseason games in a five-game first-round defeat to the Brooklyn Nets last spring.
Kemba Walker has returned to the New York Knicks.
*{padding:0;margin:0;overflow:hidden} html,bodyheight:100% img,spanposition:absolute;width:100% ;top:0;bottom:0;margin:auto;bodyheight:100% html,bodyheight:100% html,bodyheight:100% html,bodyheight:100% html,bodyheight:100% html,bodyheight:100% html,bodyhe spanheight:1.5em;text-align:center;font:48px/1.5 sans-serif;color:white;text-shadow:0 0 0.5em black;text-shadow:0 0 0.5em black;text-shadow:0 0 0.5em black;text-shadow:0 0 0.5em black;text-shadow:0 0 0.5em black;text-shadow
The Celtics transferred Kemba Walker’s terrible deal (with two years and $73.7 million left) to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Al Horford’s awful contract (two years and $53.5 million, not entirely guaranteed).
The Oklahoma City Thunder ate $53.7 million of Walker’s guaranteed money over the next two seasons, and the New York Knicks signed him to a two-year, $17.9 million contract.
While the native New Yorker had his moments — most memorably a 44-point outburst in a defeat to the Washington Wizards just before Christmas — coach Tom Thibodeau benched him. Before the All-Star break, he appeared in 13 of 15 games since Jan. 18, averaging 8.1 points in 22.6 minutes.
Thibs didn’t like his 37.1 percent shooting from the field, including 27.3 percent from three-point range, along with his awful defense.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the club and Walker have agreed to put Walker on the bench.
Walker was said to be on the market for a buyout for the second time in less than a year. Instead, it’s expected that Excel Sports representatives Jeff Schwartz and Javon Phillips will be better positioned to secure a trade for the 31-year-expiring old’s deal in the winter.
Next season, Walker is set to earn $9.2 million.
For undersized guards, this is a common scenario. When you’re dropping 25 or 30 a night, teams are more likely to plan around weak defense than when you’re launching bricks into whole neighborhoods.
The fast reduction of small guards is well-known.
The New York Knicks’ Kemba Walker reacts during a game at Madison Square Garden against the Brooklyn Nets | Michelle Farsi/Getty Images
In the early days of the NBA, there were a slew of diminutive guards who starred. However, as the league grew, the players grew in size. The early 1950s 6-foot-5 centers evolved into the late 1960s and 1970s 6-foot-5 shooting guards.
Allen Iverson is the contemporary era’s gold standard for the NBA’s small forwards. In 1996, the Philadelphia 76ers selected Iverson first overall, and he went on to lead the league in scoring four times. In 2000–01, the 6-footer was named NBA MVP and was inducted into the Hall of Fame on the first vote.
Even The Answer, however, was not immune to a rapid collapse. Iverson’s scoring dropped from 26.4 points per night at age 33 to 17.5 points per night in 2008–09. He was out of the league a little more than a year later.
Kemba Walker’s deterioration is ahead of schedule. This is mostly due to arthritis in his left knee. That’s a holdover from two procedures to repair a torn meniscus in two years (in 2015 and 2016).
For a little athlete whose game depends on speed and agility, anything that diminishes those characteristics, even a small bit, is fatal.
Suddenly, that initial step isn’t being taken by as many people. The jump shot’s explosion is more of a muffed fizzle. And such daring forays into the passing lane in search of thefts now fail much more often than they used to.
Kemba Walker has most likely played his last game with the New York Knicks. We’ll have to wait and see whether he wears any NBA game gear. However, given the history of aging little guards, he may have already reached the end of the path and is unaware of it.
Basketball Reference provided the statistics. Spotrac provided contract details.
RELATED: The New York Knicks’ Ineptness Is Confirmed Once Again After Kemba Walker Ends His Season
The “how much are the knicks paying kemba walker” is a question that has been asked by many. Kemba Walker has had an up and down career, but he is still considered one of the best point guards in the league. He is on his last year of his contract with the New York Knicks, so it will be interesting to see what happens next.
Related Tags
- kemba walker knicks contract details
- kemba walker free agency
- kemba walker no trade clause
- nba new york knicks
- kemba walker trade
