Kemba Walker: Plenty Of Room For Improvement
By Evan Massey
Kemba Walker still has plenty of room to improve before he reaches his full potential for the Charlotte Hornets.
The Charlotte Hornets have gotten to a very shaky 4-6 tart this season, and part of that has to do with the shaky start that franchise point guard Kemba Walker has had. Walker was signed to a new four-year, $48 million deal this past offseason, and was expected to take a major step forward in the right direction. That hasn’t been the case just yet, and Walker is showing the exact flaws that held him back last year.
Here are the statistics that Walker has put up through the Hornets’ first 10 games of the season:
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/17/2014.
Quite simply, the averages aren’t even up to par with what the expectations were for Walker coming into the season. The Hornets were fully expecting him to become a more dangerous offensive option with more maturity a far as shot selection was concerned, but things have actually gone the exact opposite way. There isn’t a ton of concern being made vocal due to how early it is in the season, but the play he has shown on the court has hurt them.
Walker is too talented of a player to be wasting his potential away on poor shot selection and not learning from his mistakes.
Charlotte has put together a team that they really believe can compete to win the Eastern Conference this season, but Walker has to figure out how to play to his full potential. They want him to be aggressive offensively, but they can’t afford for him to take bad aggressive shots and give away possessions. Players like Lance Stephenson and Al Jefferson are more than capable of scoring as well, and as the point guard it is Walker’s job to make sure that everyone gets touches.
During Walker’s second NBA season, he saw his overall shooting percentage rise to 42.3 percent from the field. That is the highest that it has been throughout his four year career so far, and the only time that it has been over 40 percent. His best three-point percentage in his career was last season at 33.3 percent.
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All of that being said, there is a ton of work for Walker to do over the next few weeks to get his season back on track and step up to being what the Hornets need him to be. He has all of the tools to become a star point guard in the NBA, but he has to move past hurting himself. It’s understandable for a young player to have some bumps in the road and growing pains, but at 24 years of age he has to begun getting over those issues.
There is no question that the Hornets have compiled the necessary talent to make a run in the playoffs this year. They aren’t likely going to win the Eastern Conference, but they’re going to be very tough for any team to knock off in a seven game series. If Walker gets his head on straight and begins playing to his full potential, the sky is the limit this year for the Hornets.