Don’t Look Now, But Hornets’ Kemba Walker Is Finally Elite
By Jon Shames
Kemba Walker hit us like a truck.
You’d be hard pressed to find a non-homer that believed Kemba Walker to be an “elite” point guard — the same way that Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook, John Wall and Stephen Curry are “elite” point guards — 365 days ago.
And based on his numbers, it really was quite a stretch to label Walker as such, especially considering his inability to get the Charlotte Hornets (Bobcats, really) out of the NBA’s cellar during the first two seasons of his career.
And in Walker’s third year, the first in which his club qualified for a postseason appearance, it was really the presence of Al Jefferson and Steve Clifford in the paint and on the sidelines, respectively, that got the job done — not Walker. After all, the kind-of-Al-less, Walker-led Bobcats were crushed in the first round by the Miami Heat in humiliating fashion.
Although Hornets fans stood by Walker through the struggles of both the team and Walker himself, it was somewhat disappointing; Kemba Walker, after leading an unranked Connecticut Huskies team to both a conference title and an NCAA tournament title, was simply unable to carry his club’s weight at the NBA level.
More from Hoops Habit
- The 5 most dominant NBA players who never won a championship
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
His numbers from 2013-14 mirrored those from the season before, and still weren’t great: he was scoring the same 17.7 points per game, but he was only regressing efficiency-wise. His passing (never a strong-suit) had improved, but marginally.
Worst of all, his shot selection remained god-awful, something that an offensively challenged team like last year’s Bobcats could’ve done without.
Still, fans stuck by Walker, and more importantly, management did as well. Two days before the start of the season, the former ninth-overall pick was handed a $48 million extension by Rich Cho and Michael Jordan, which he eagerly accepted.
At first, the extension looked like a mistake. Walker had perhaps the worst start of his career in November, averaging just 13.3 points on a ghastly 36.6 percent shooting. He had just three games throughout the entire 30-day period in which he shot higher than 50 percent, and he closed out a painful opening month with a four-tick performance in a 30-point blowout loss.
Things weren’t going well … at all.
But it was at that point that Kemba Walker hit us like a truck.
Perhaps a better analogy could’ve been used, because Walker’s burst onto the scene was far from painful; it was nothing short of beautiful.
Despite the obstacles — his team, in the midst of a nine-game losing streak, had virtually no momentum, and he was still struggling to fit in with offseason acquisition Lance Stephenson — Walker shelved his forgettable November and opened up December with his first 20+-point performance of the season, scoring 23 against Chicago.
The next game, he hit a game-winning layup to end the Hornets’ losing streak, and proceeded to score 20-plus points six times in his next nine games. The Hornets were able to put together a couple of win streaks, but they were still losing more than they were winning, visibly struggling to establish chemistry on the court.
And when Al Jefferson and Lance Stephenson both went down, Hornets fans started to panic; it was now Walker’s team once more, something that hadn’t faired well in the past.
But Kemba stepped up. Behind a cumulative scoring average of 30.2 points per game, Walker powered Charlotte to a five-game winning streak (the longest of the season) en route to winning Eastern Conference Player of the Week. In what has been a fantastic January, Walker is playing as well as any of the league’s elite floor generals — perhaps even better.
In 37.3 minutes, he’s been averaging 26.8 points per game, but the numbers don’t tell the full story. Kemba Walker has almost single-handedly ignited each of Hornets’ much-needed scoring runs, and his timely shooting against New Orleans allowed the Hornets to triumph over a Western Conference opponent for the first time since Dec. 22.
Walker has been the driving force behind Charlotte’s momentum, and subsequently, the win streak’s puppet master.
Of the elite point guards previously mentioned — Wall, Curry, Paul, Westbrook — only one of them has had a better scoring month than Walker (Westbrook averaged 28.3 per game in December).
Perhaps the best part about Walker’s impressive stretch has been his offensive variety; normally someone heavily reliant on his midrange jumper, Kemba has been putting his ball handling abilities to good use by slashing more frequently than normal.
He’s one of the fastest players in the league and is able to change directions in a heart beat, so despite his small size, he’s been carving up the opposition in the paint.
Because of this, his free throw attempts this month have increased by more than two per game, making him the leader among all point guards in January. He’s been one step ahead of the defense, and has been timing his attacks carefully and deliberately.
This month, 32.8 percent of his shot attempts have come when he is “open” (meaning a defender is between four and six feet away), up 5.3 percent from his season average.
Walker has always played like he’s been in a rush. He was never considered to have the patience of Chris Paul or Rajon Rondo, but taking a step back and slowing everything down allows him to control the pace of the game and play it in his own paradigm, an essential ability for any good franchise player.
Nobody becomes a superstar overnight, but Kemba Walker is certainly on his way. An All-Star appearance this year would be no surprise at all.
Walker has always had the talent to be a top-tier point guard, but now that the mindset is there too, that could become a reality in the near future.
Now, it’s only a matter of time before Kemba Walker becomes King of the Queen City.