kemba walker available

[boardtown]

Kemba for a rag tag group of pieces is fine.

Kemba for a rag tag group of pieces is wishful thinking.

[N.O.Bronco]

Talent is a grand thing. I am normally big about talent, especially top end talent. But fit is also a big thing, and the best franchises, well aside from the preconstructed superteams, always find ways to strike the right balance, find the right roleplayers etc. so that the overall unit plays better than its constituent parts.

And that is my argument about Kemba -- he is a very good player, for the right team. His particular skillset, and I'm not sure why there is a question about this since he was this way all the way back into college, is as a ball dominant downhill rim attacking guard with shaky floor generalship. Of course now it being the "modern NBA" he has added in prolific 3pt spamming at ok efficiency. Consider these numbers:

Percentage of FGs assisted
Cunningham 90.4%
Miller 82.9%
Moore 77.3%
Clark 70.0%
Davis 69.0%
Cousins 54.7%
Nelson 51.4%
Holiday 50.0%
Rondo 33.0%
Walker 25.9%

FGA a Game
Cousins 18.1
Davis 17.4
Holiday 14.8
Moore 10.1
Rondo 6.6
Miller 5.7
Clark 5.0
Nelson 4.7
Cunningham 4.3
+
Walker 17.4?

TS%
Cousins .582
Davis .636
Holiday .583
Moore .615
Miller .642
+
Walker .549
+
Rondo .532
Cunningham .525
Clark .502
Nelson .501


Time of Possession/Game
Walker 8.0min (4th in NBA)
Holiday 4.4min
Rondo 4.4min
Cousins 4.0min
Nelson 3.6min
Davis 2.3min
Moore 1.5min


And etc.

Guys, what that is is a statistical portrait of is of a player who comes from a disimilar offensive approach to basketball than the one being used by Gentry/Finch. Kemba is Tyreke. Later day Iverson school. He's EXTREMELY ball dominant...and the Pels this year have gone the opposite way and divied up ballhandling and passing duties amongst a platoon of players. The ball has hopped, the team is the #2 assisting team in the league, and the Pels top 5 players have been extraordinarily efficient. Going out and acquiring one of the league's most ball dominant players, a player who creates 3/4 of his own shots off his own dribble and is used to taking as many shots a game as the Pels' Towers but at lesser efficiency...that's a bowling ball that would send pins flying in every direction for the Pels. There is simply no way that would be anything but disruptive as hell, and disruptive on the very side of the ball where the Pels have often been special.


As a closing note:

2017-18 Per 36min
Kemba 22.6pts (.423 .343 .848) 3.5reb 6.0ast 1.3stl 0.3blk 2.1TO on .549TS% and 25.9% AstFG
Tyreke 22.5pts (.455 .392 .800) 6.0reb 5.7ast 1.2stl 0.4blk 2.4TO on .561TS% and 31.1% AstFG

As always, great work. I think the question in situations like this is always, how moldable and adaptable are they? Evans wasn't in his time here. He was slow and prodding and ball dominant, and refused to adapt to an up tempo, ball movement system. Or at least be the sort of ball dominant point guard that can adapt his game into what the rest of the team was doing. Kemba comes from a pace offense, Charlotte is ranked 9th in pace, 3 spots down from us. which is actually a large shift from his time there, but he has made the transition and thrived. Which speaks to what I have read teammates complimenting Kemba on in the way we talk about Rondo. That he is like a coach on the floor, knows what the coach wants and gets people to execute it. That sounds starkly different from what you get out of a Tyreke Evans type. The major thing that I see as separating them, besides offensive skillset, is that high IQ and coachability. Tyreke Evans with those two characteristics throughout his career would probably be making 20 million plus right now.

While all of what you say is true, it is also true that Kemba has basically been a one man show in Charlotte most of his career. Which has necessitated him to be that type of player who has the ball in his hands a lot and carries the responsibility of the brunt of their offense, and that seems to be what the coach has wanted. He is also elite in the pick and roll, something we incorporate a fair deal of in our offenses. He has also played well with Dwight Howard. He is currently second in the league in secondary assists to Stephen Curry, which tends to be an indicator of a willingness to move the ball and to turn good shots into great ones. When you look at a lot of the advanced passing stats, Kemba starts to come out looking a lot better than one might anticipate.

In an ideal world I would take a healthy Mike Conley over a Kemba Walker any day. But if the opportunity presented itself? I think Kemba would add a whole new dimension to this offense and I am less concerned about fit than others. Kemba actually fits the mold of what Gentry's systems look for in a point guard, and he is always praised for his work ethic and high IQ. It's also the sort of win/win trade that you seek as a GM. Since Kemba is on a great contract and you can likely move him to a contender next season if things don't work out.