Charlotte Hornets: 2017-18 player grades for Kemba Walker

Highlights

I could spend all day going through Walker’s highlights, especially on offense. He is an absolute dynamo and when he is locked in, he’s nearly unguardable.

His best game (based on his game score) came against the Memphis Grizzlies on March 22. By this point, Mike Conley was long gone due to injury and Memphis was clearly in tank mode as the season was coming to a close. They gave Walker plenty of room to shoot the 3, which is a foolish mistake these days. He was on fire, scoring 46 points on 10-for-14 shooting from downtown in a more than convincing 140-79 win.

His second-best game of the year came in a losing effort to the God-awful Chicago Bulls, but it was impressive nevertheless. Unlike the Memphis game, Walker used the pick-and-roll a lot more, serving the Bulls his usual buffet of floaters, pull-ups and drives to crater the defense.

Walker was deadly from deep in this game as well, going 5-for-9 from 3-point range. He constantly made the Bulls pay for whatever space they gave him, as he often found the bottom of the net.

The final highlight game was Walker’s 41-point performance in the Hornets’ 133-126 win over the Indiana Pacers on Feb. 2. Walker finished with 41 points and nine dimes, once again relying heavily on ball screens.

He took advantage of traps and switches by the Indiana defense to create opportunities for his teammates. Whenever he created space for himself, he capitalized.