On December 17, Beijing time, according to the New York Post reporter Marc Berman reported that a source revealed that the Knicks have planned to trade Kemba Walker, who fell out of the rotation, but now no one is willing to take him, and if they still can't send Walker after the trade deadline, then the Knicks may buy Out Walker.
Walker was an Eastern Conference All-Star starter last year, but now a year has passed, he was first traded, then bought out by the Thunder. When he joined the Knicks, the outside world was very optimistic about Walker's rebirth, but he was abandoned by Thibodeau and was likely to encounter the second buyout of his career.
So the question is, why did Walker get so miserable? Statistically, he averaged 24.4 minutes per game, averaged 11.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists, and shot 41.3 percent from three-point range, although his performance could not be compared with his former All-Star appearances, but he should definitely not have no ball to play or no one interested in, after all, his contract was only 8.7 million. But why doesn't anyone want Walker? This is probably determined by three reasons.
First, Walker's defensive ability is too poor. According to statistics, Walker's defensive efficiency value this season is 116.3 (116.3 points per 100 possessions), ranking third from the bottom of the Knicks team, while Knox and McBride, who are worse than him, have less than 9 minutes of playing time and are also at the end of the bench. As a coach who values defense, Thibodeau can't tolerate Walker, and other teams will inevitably dislike Walker's defensive problems.
Second, some people may say that in the NBA there are not only walkers who have attacks and no defenses, if his offensive efficiency is high, then the defense is almost acceptable to everyone. The problem is that Walker's data seems to be good, but his efficiency is not high. Walker's offensive efficiency value this season is only 103.0, which is also the third-to-last of the whole team, while the penultimate 1st and 2nd-to-last are still Sims and Knox, who have played less than 9 minutes.
In addition, Walker's ball stats reached 20.8%, that is, he needed a certain amount of ball. Then the problem comes, the strong team naturally does not have the ball to Walker, and the weak team needs to train new people, and will not give Walker the ball. Therefore, although Walker has a certain offensive ability, there are not many teams that actually need him, which is one of the reasons why no one in Walker is willing to take over.
Third, because Walker was directly beaten into the cold palace, the outside world also understood that the Knicks had broken with him, so it was obviously not cost-effective to pay for Walker at this time. Even if a team wants to get him, it can wait until the Knicks buy out and pick up the leak, and then the contract that Walker can sign is most likely the basic salary, which will definitely be cheaper than now, and the cost performance will be higher.
Because of this, Ming walker's contract is not large, and his performance is not particularly bad, but due to these 3 reasons, no one is willing to take him. The Knicks currently only have 2 options, either to post the draft pick, so that walker's contract can be used for appropriate reinforcement, such as can pack Walker and Knox plus draft picks to exchange for their favorite Gordon. Either it is to negotiate a good buyout clause with Walker and save some money, but this option is a bit of a loss, so if you can post a draft pick to trade Walker, it may be the best way.