Charlotte Hornets: Why Kemba Walker Is The Team’s X-Factor
By Jon Shames
It begins Wednesday night.
That’s right–after more than a decade of waiting, Charlotte Hornets fans will finally get to see their team take the court. Wednesday evening, the Hornets host the Milwaukee Bucks at the Time Warner Cable Arena to kick off the season.
The next 82 games will speak volumes about the newly assembled Hornets, who added two fringe All-Stars in Al Jefferson and Lance Stephenson in the summers of 2013 and 2014, respectively. The addition of the former proved to be a smart investment, as Jefferson helped the team increase their win total by 22.
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Jefferson was the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, and was undoubtedly its MVP last season.
Stephenson, on the other hand, has yet to appear in a regular-season game with the Hornets, and has had his preseason cut short, but he still projects to be a fantastic addition to the club, especially after his stellar 2013-14 campaign with the Indiana Pacers, in which he led the NBA in triple-doubles.
Each of these guys are, without a doubt, going to be huge for the Hornets in the upcoming season, but who is going to be the X-factor–Stephenson or Jefferson?
Well … neither.
As invaluable and talented as those two are, the fate of the Charlotte Hornets’ inaugural season rests on the scrawny shoulders of a 6-foot-1 point guard.
Kemba Walker, the season is in your hands.
A champion. A leader. A talent.
The ninth overall pick in the 2011 draft has been successful on both the collegiate and professional levels, despite his tiny 6-foot-1, 184-lb build. Unlike many of the other point guards that have come to dominate the league, Kemba Walker isn’t an explosive athlete, a great shooter, or a gifted distributor.
Yet somehow, he still gets the job done.
With that said, however, although Walker is skilled, Stephenson and Jefferson are now the two best players on the Hornets. Kemba will play third fiddle in the new Big Three, something that he hasn’t been forced to do since–well, ever most likely.
So how can the production (or lack thereof) of a third option on a defensive team be the deciding factor of that team’s season? Well, it’s not so much Walker as much as it is the NBA’s other point guards.
Derrick Rose, John Wall, Michael Carter-Williams, Kyrie Irving, Kyle Lowry, and of course, Mario Chalmers (kidding) make up the Eastern Conference’s new wave of elite point guards.
That group, on top of the already-established veterans–Deron Williams and Rajon Rondo—plus the almost somewhat elite–Jeff Teague, Brandon Jennings, Brandon Knight–are all a part of the talent pool that Kemba Walker will have to go against night-in and night-out…and that’s just in the East; the talent is even better out West.
Walker has established himself as an upper-middle-tier floor general, but nothing more than that, mostly due to his day-t0-day inconsistency. Following up a 20+point, 50+ percent night, Walker can easily drop a 11-point 6-for-16 dud. Does this hurt the Hornets? Sure. But, as long as Walker can step it up when it counts, the Hornets can scrape by.
Take three of the league’s best: Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, and John Wall, say. Each of them need to be playing well to get their team’s motor chugging. The Clippers–the best-coached club out of the lot–struggled when CP3 struggled; Paul scored 11 points or fewer eight times last season … the Clips lost six of those games, only beating the 76ers and the Nuggets.
The Washington Wizards won just 13 out of 32 games in which John Wall shot less than 40 percent from the field.
Considering this, it’s a pretty safe assumption to say that preventing these ball-dominating point guards from heating up can be the difference between a tally in the win column and one in the loss column.
This is where Walker comes in: he’s got to win his match ups.
There’s no other way around it. He’s got to go at his opponents with everything he’s got. He can’t settle for midrange jumpers or quick threes from 30 feet out. Defensively, gambling for steals should be done selectively, if at all. He’s not a specialist of any sorts, which is why he has to win with his savvy.
As I mentioned before, Walker is someone who knows how to win. A NCAA tournament champion during his final year at Connecticut, Walker has shown the ability to step his game up on the big stage.
It’s no secret that he’s got the enviable “clutch gene,” but for the Hornets to see the success they want to see, Walker is going to have to play all of his games–or at least a great-majority of them–with that same drive.
Facing off against the league’s best on an almost night-to-night basis is no easy task, and it’s a lot to ask for, especially for a 24-year-old entering just his fourth NBA season.
Luckily for the Charlotte Hornets, Kemba Walker is no ordinary 24-year-old.