The New York Knicks whiffed on the Kemba Walker acquisition during the offseason.
When the New York Knicks landed Kemba Walker, after he was bought out from the Oklahoma City Thunder, many were quick to celebrate this low-risk, high-reward move that the team had just pulled off.
Nevertheless, a little more than one month into the season, it’s looking more and more like the Knicks took a big swing and miss on Kemba.
After a somewhat solid start to the season in his first seven games, Kemba has been a much different player for the Knicks over his last 10 games played. Kemba is on pace to finish with the least productive season of his career thus far.
In his last 10 games specifically, Kemba is averaging just 8.8 points and three assists on 37 percent shooting from the field and 24 percent shooting from 3-point range. Perhaps more telling about the level of play from Kemba over the last couple of weeks, he’s been a team-worst -8.8 over that span.
The Knicks as a whole are struggling as well. After a fast start to the season, in which they were 5-1 through their first six games, New York is now sitting near the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture at 10-8.
Even though the team’s struggles in not entirely on the struggles of Kemba, you can’t help but think that he carries a big hand in how the team has struggled recently.
At a certain point, the Knicks are going to have to make an important decision regarding Kemba in the starting lineup. Right now, the Knicks are just an average team. I’m not sure this is what the front office envisioned when they made the offseason acquisitions that they did.
In the back of Knicks’ minds, you can’t help but think of what this team would look like right now if they used the money that they ended up spending on Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker on DeMar DeRozan (if he would’ve even been interested in joining the Knicks).
With the season that he’s had thus far with the Chicago Bulls, it’s an interesting hypothetical. And it makes you wonder, will the 2021 NBA offseason be remembered as another big mistake from this front office?