Kemba Walker and the Knicks, is this already the end? We can legitimately ask ourselves the question today after learning this news from New York: the veteran point guard will no longer play a single game this season. This decision would have been made jointly by the player and the New York franchise.
When Kemba Walker joined the Knicks last summer, the story was great. The child of the Bronx back home, to bring his offensive qualities to a New York team which remained on a season as surprising as it was attractive. His deal – $18 million over two years – seemed like a big deal for the franchise and everyone was happy. We are now at the end of February and everything has changed. According to Adrian Wojnarowski ofESPNKemba and the Knicks have agreed to end the veteran point guard’s season after 37 games for New York this year. 37 games, in which Walker posted career-low 11.6 points (40.3% shooting, 36.7% 3-pointers, 84.5% free throws), 3 rebounds and 3 .5 average passes in 25.6 minutes per game. We talk about “agree” because if we believe the words of Woj, the objective behind this decision is to allow Kemba to regain all his physical capacities for the 2022-23 season, which will be the last of his contract. The beginning of the year was indeed not easy for the former star of the Hornets, again hampered by sores in the knee. And while the Knicks are really in trouble today with a slammed record of 25 wins – 34 losses synonymous with a poor 12th place in the East, the player’s camp as well as the franchise felt that the best thing to do was to stop the charges. It remains to be seen who will take his place in the five. Derrick Rose? Why not, he should soon return after several weeks of absence and could join the starting lineup directly. Or Immanuel Quickley? Alec Burks? The first elements of response will fall on Friday for the match against the Heat.
so here’s the last episode in the saga “the complicated return of Kemba at home”. We remember that after the Knicks’ disappointing start to the season, Thibs chose to remove Walker from the rotation, the latter spending no less than three consecutive weeks on the bench without playing a single minute. A pro through and through, he was armed with patience to then find the floor, even achieving a few XXL performances in his beloved Madison Square Garden (44 points against Washington, triple-double at Christmas). However, it didn’t last because of his physical problems and we even wondered if he was going to get transferred at the trade deadline, or get cut via a buyout. Ultimately, Kemba and the Knicks should stay tied until the end of the season and theoretically until 2023 since Walker’s contract still contains a year after this one. However, we can wonder if we will ever see the child from New York again in a Knicks jersey because there is a chance that a transfer will be put in place this summer., when the Kemba Walker deal will become a deal expiring at $9 million. This contractual situation could interest some teams and we all agree that the Kemba experience in New York no longer really has a future today…
Kemba Walker and the Knicks, it may already be over. And if that’s indeed how the story ends, it will be further proof that homecomings aren’t always the best. Just ask Russell Westbrook, he’ll probably agree too.
Source texte : ESPN, New York Post
Walker will be on an expiring contract this summer and that’ll offer an opportunity for the Knicks and his agent Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports to work on trade scenarios in the offseason.
– Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 23, 2022
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