Miami Heat: Why they should not trade for Kemba Walker
By Zamir Bueno
Why the Miami Heat shouldn’t trade for Kemba Walker: His recurring knee problems
Although Walker will succeed in this role, there are two problems with the Heat acquiring Walker. Walker has dealt with left knee issues for the past year and a half. After a game against the Milwaukee Bucks on January 16th, 2020, Walker alerted Celtics team doctors that he felt some soreness in his left knee.
As a precaution, the Celtics kept him out for the next game, but he returned on January 20th. On February 1st, 2020, Walker stated that the knee soreness could be attributed to him playing so much basketball between the previous summer and February 1st.
More from Miami Heat
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Report: Miami Heat hoping to keep key player out of Lillard trade talks
- Grade the Trade: The Heat pass on Lillard to land an MVP in this proposal
- NBA Rumors: Heat have big plans to upgrade frontcourt if they land Lillard
He kept playing until the All-Star game; unfortunately, he exacerbated his injury in the All-Star game by playing 32 minutes. The workload forced him to get his knee drained after the game. Walker would miss the first 5 games of the second half before returning. He kept dealing with periodic knee soreness for the rest of the season.
The knee soreness contributed to him missing a total of 16 regular-season games during that campaign. However, Walker and the Celtics tried to address his knee soreness during the offseason, as the team announced he received a stem cell injection on December 1st in an attempt to regenerate some cartilage into his knee.
After receiving the stem cell, Walker was put on a knee strengthening program, which took 12 weeks. He returned to the court on January 17th, 2021. Boston gave Walker several games off throughout the regular season to prevent him from experiencing pain in the knee. He missed a game on February 17th and April 23rd due to left knee injury management.
The knee issue was a factor in him missing a total of 29 games last season. Unfortunately, therefore, there is no guarantee that he would remain healthy as a member of the Miami Heat organization.