After joining the New York Knicks, Kemba Walker left a photo of himself smiling brightly on the tall building of the Empire State Building in New York.
Leaving Joe Boss, Kemba Walker's ideal was to join a team that could win. Fast forward 3 seasons, and Kemba Walker, who is already 31 years old, has little time left for him to win.
Kemba's post-Hornet career continued to be in the East, but good fortune did not accompany him. In Boston and New York, two teams with ancient histories, Kemba has gone from being the third star and backcourt commander of the Celtics to an ordinary member of the Knicks' backcourt rotation, and still has not escaped the fate of being abandoned by the team.
According to ESPN, the Knicks have reached an agreement with guard Kemba Walker that Walker will miss the rest of the Knicks' game of the season. Considering that Walker is not satisfied with the water and soil here, the two sides have tacitly reached an agreement, and there is a great possibility that the future will part ways.
Having been the eldest brother in the Hornets, Kemba Walker took the initiative to change, but still could not escape the fate of being abandoned. Being a big brother for many years, a star with the ball, at the end of his career, is more so. Walker, who is 31 years old and wants to chase a championship ring, has not had many golden years.
Celtic period: Double Probe Flower's big brother
When Walker joined the Celtics, there was a sense of "dawn".
Looking only at strength, Walker is not as good as his predecessor, Kyrie Irving. But by the time Irving decided to leave, the Celtics and his fans were tired of the "Uncle Owen" who always regarded himself as an opinion leader but could not lead the team to a breakthrough.
Kemba looks like the opposite of Owen. He has a humble personality, a good smile, and is more willing to mingle with young people than to teach them how to play.
The Celts welcomed Kemba with warmth, but patience was limited.
At that time, the biggest problem with the Celtics was that it was very difficult to achieve their goals. They were regulars in the Eastern Conference Finals, and the double detectives led the team to play in the Eastern Conference Finals, just one step away from the Finals, which gave them more expectations. Any defender who joins during this period has high hopes: to lead the team to the Finals at least once.
Hope here in Kemba, but the basic plate of the Celtics, or depends on the stability of the double probe combination.
In the 2019-20 season, as well as the 2020-21 season, the Celtics all faced a problem: the Celtics under the coach of the young manager, the complex running position and tactical system could not be efficiently converted into scoring firepower.
And the coaches know that the Celtics always give the ball to Tatum and Jaylen Brown. But the hard solution ability of the two cores is not enough to lead the team to lift the trophy of the division champion. Opponents in the same city, the Nets, 76 people are rising, in the case of this and that, the Celtics' relative strength ranking will not rise but fall.
And Walker also highlighted his shortcomings under the role of the three bosses:
Too small, under layers of defense, it is difficult to guarantee the finishing efficiency, especially in the playoffs with higher defensive intensity.
Originally in the Hornets, the team was not a strong team, did not play knockout rounds, and did not have a high pursuit of results. In the regular season, the team was mainly offensive, covering up many defensive problems.
In the 7-game 4-win system, the opposite researchers and coaching team, through the analysis of the game video to find weaknesses, Kemba's unfavorable defensive characteristics were put on the table and became the team's breakthrough.
Since the price of self-reduction, joining the Knicks has been abandoned
From Big Brother to past balloon stars who couldn't help the Celtics much.
Walker and the Celtics naturally came to a fork in the road, and this time, Kemba Walker, who had experienced a failure, chose to reduce his price and signed with the Knicks in the summer of 2021 with a two-year, 17.9 million contract.
At that time, the Knicks were the star of hope.
They have assembled a young, inexperienced but offensive and defensive team, and the only veteran with extensive playoff experience on the team is Thibodeau's favorite player, Derrick Rose.
The offensive firepower could not keep up, so in the summer frantically replenished the offensive firepower, the players who could attack on their own became fragrant: they attracted the French flank Fourniers, and they also found Kemba Walker, all to continue what they wanted: scoring firepower.
But this is yet another attempt that is doomed to fail.
The Knicks' problem is not about a specific position, but on the overall collapse of the lineup with Randle as the core.
The Knicks' success stemmed from Randall, a self-motivated young man who brought the Knicks out of the mire who were accustomed to losing. The "head-on" operation during the Lakers era became tolerable in the Knicks, and over time, Randle's personal offensive ability gradually developed, coupled with Barrett's flank defense, enough to make the Knicks a playoff team.
But what happened this season?
In New York, Randall, who has always been the core, suddenly found that he could not support such a big scene. But this core is used to doing, and it is difficult to adjust for a while. On the court, they can only watch Randall ask for the ball outside the three-point line, and then twist and squeeze inside, really can't move to come to a retreat jumper to hit the iron, and then complain to the referee.
So the Knicks quickly went from one rebuild to the beginning of another.
Before the trade deadline, according to ESPN, the list of players they can trade includes the French flanker Fournier, and Kemba Walker, who has been developing poorly since joining, and these veterans were recruited at that time to help the team go further on the basis of the division semifinals, but now the development has obviously encountered bottlenecks, and this type of puzzle type of player is temporarily useless.
For Kemba Walker, his chances in the league are running out. Players who are not tall enough and rely on skill and speed will find it difficult to have a good home at the tail end of their careers, such as the more famous Aaron Iverson, and it is difficult to escape the fate of displacement and retirement.
After hitting the south wall in New York, Kemba Walker was able to choose another team to play the residual heat.
Looking at his past Hornets, who have played well under the organization of Lamello Ball after 00, although the overall record is not satisfactory, they have obviously found a new reliable core of the team, and the previous owner Celtics, double probe flowers have also grown.
Walker has missed the best opportunity of his career, is the door to the championship still a chance to open for him?