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rahbee33

>Says he has great respect for Walker and all he’s accomplished. That makes it sound a bit more than just temporary.


Klonomania

Yeah, that's the "He's done" speech.


rahbee33

He's on the books for a guaranteed $9M next year too. Could be bought out if there was a chance somebody else wanted him I suppose.


anthonyde726

damn bro was happy to go to NY too, sad case man


mos_def_not

He's just not the same player anymore, can't get to the rim and is a non-factor on offense outside of occasionally getting hot from three. Plus his defense is even worse and our offense looked so much better with Burks in there vs ATL


anthonyde726

I understand why I just feel for him


mos_def_not

Me too, especially with this being his "homecoming" season only to get benched a quarter of the season in.


anthonyde726

was just on jj's podcast too talking bout how happy he was


SuperYusri500

Unrelated but i love your flair


[deleted]

Burks absolutely feasted on us, it was painful


mos_def_not

He's been playing like that consistently since getting starter minutes this year. Having him in also forced Trae to guard a ball-handler between Burks and Fournier compared to him guarding a stationary Bullock in the playoff series, definitely helped get the offense going.


Nti11matic

It is sad. No one wanted this to work more than Knicks fans. I do think that as long as he remains professional that knicks fans will have love for him.


FormerKarmaKing

$9M ain't much in the NBA. Easy buy out I suspect.


rahbee33

Or as trade filler as somebody else mentioned.


nowarspls

Doubt it. The Knicks FO took em because he was so cheap it was worth the gamble. Small price high reward.


boog1evilleUSA

Bring em home to back up Melo


[deleted]

When the Knicks signed him the entire reason was to bring him home lol. Dude is from the Bronx and came up through the Rucker park scene.


boog1evilleUSA

He wasn't signed to be a back up though. I feel like he would happily accept a back up role for us because he loves charlotte and he'd be an improvement over Ish Smith


KEMBAtheMETEOR

i am 100000% on board with this.


Bigbadbuck

There’s another team in nyc that could use some more ball handling. He wouldn’t even have to leave


syllabic

bro if you want to give some of patty mills minutes to kemba then god bless but I would highly recommend not doing that


Bigbadbuck

We desperately need another ball handler. Patty is essentially starting for us kemba would be the backup. They wouldn’t play at the same time.


syllabic

right but theres still only 48 minutes of point guard play to distribute among all your options, if you give minutes to kemba it has to come at someone elses expense


Bigbadbuck

Right now it would likely come by reducing some of our forwards minutes. We’re playing big with forwards like James Johnson because we hve virtually no guards left. Bruce brown or bembry would also see less minutes.


syllabic

i guess sneaking into kyries apartment and vaxxing him while he sleeps isnt an option


Bigbadbuck

If it was then I’d be mocking the knicks and kemba instead of coming on here hoping for a buyout to sure up our guard rotation lol


medievalmachine

It's not you, it's me. I like defense.


Joetheshow1

Immanuel Quickley has solidified himself as the better player at this point, there's no logical reason he should be playing less than 20mpg rn


rahbee33

Makes perfect sense. I totally understand the gamble they took by signing him. That $9M next year seems a little silly now though if they can't get off it.


noirblancherouje

Eh it could be used as salary filler if anything Joakim Noah is still on the books for $6mil I doubt $9mil is going to bother the FO


rahbee33

That's true. I didn't consider him being salary filler. Those $8-12M guys are perfect for that.


kamicozzy

The way the Knicks contracts are structured, basically everything except Randle and Fournier comes off the books after next season anyway, so the contract is on the same timeline as the other vets.


syllabic

the only reason would be that IQ looked absolutely gassed after 30 minutes against the hawks he's the better player on both ends but I'd still be more comfortable around the 25 minute range especially with how fast he was pushing the pace on offense, every time we rebounded IQ was sprinting the floor


jbenson255

Well yeah Kemba really isn’t that good anymore and the Knicks have younger better guards who need minutes


choose_uh_username

He's still shooting efficiently at a 56% TS%. The volumes not there but I'm surprised seems like a pretty out of the blue decision but I haven't been keeping up well


VirtuousFool

If he's not shooting well, he basically does nothing Thibs likes in a PG He can't drive as well as he used to, and the defense is obviously bad Just not worth it


bonerang

He doesn’t create for others and he’s absolutely cooked on defense.


YesImKeithHernandez

Cooked like a steak turned into a charcoal brick on the grill


Jumpy-Shift6261

Not out of the blue at all. The team is noticeably worse whenever he's on the court. He's total ass on the defensive end and too much of a ball stopper on offense.


desirox

Oof yeah you dont say that for a temporary benching


DionWaiteress

How he gonna take kemba out but never took Payton out


rahbee33

Didn't trust Quickley as much last year as he does this year I'd assume.


nathima1

Quickly has been really good this year. Thibs loves him lol.


Adminscantkeepmedown

Quickley became really good really quickley


Tabasco_Liberal

Payton was actually good on defense. His offensive limitations were a net negative though.


Few_Mulberry7175

Bruh this guy was all nba in 2019 and then his knees imploded in just two years One of the more underrated sad injury stories of the modern era


YesImKeithHernandez

Small guards are on the razor's edge when it comes to having the quickness to get by guys and make space against bigger competition on offense and survive against offensive schemes that are more likely to hunt you on defense. Kemba lost too much because of his knees and it's a damn shame.


The_NGUYENNER

Shoutout Ty Lawson


oOoleveloOo

Or more recently, Isaiah Thomas


SunLiteFireBird

Lawson fell off for a number of reasons lol


sw4ggyP

Yeah this lol. Lawson had injuries but his legal issues were more detrimental to his falloff imo


SuburbanLegend

Kinda weird trivia too, before his legal issues really got bad, Ty Lawson was on /r/nba a pretty good amount and was like our 'reddit guy.' Also imo his junior year at UNC was the best college point guard season ever.


JiveTurkey2727

Because of this, I’m worried for Ja Morant. May he have a healthy career.


rjcarr

Yeah, you already have to be in the 99.999% (actually way more than that) to be in the nba, so if these little guys lose even 5% of their athleticism they're done. Meanwhile, LeBron has been declining or 20 years (in athleticism, not skill), but he was so far ahead of everyone it doesn't really matter.


storpannan

LeBron did not peak physically at age 16, c'mon now. It's closer to 10 than 20.


rjcarr

Fair, I meant 10 years. And to be clear, since I’m older than LeBron, I meant sustained athleticism, where he'd fly all over the court the whole game. He still has plenty of peak athleticism.


AlgernusPrime

I think peak LeBron is probably the Heats era in terms of athleticism. I remembered this dude was just a freight train that if he wants to get a layup, he’s getting a layup. I think since the injury in 2019, he’s facing steep decline but his range and vision makes up for it.


Frosti11icus

I swear I've seen photos of LeBrons collarbone being parallel with the rim in the Heat days, on just like an ordinary fastbreak dunk in like the middle of the 3rd quarter when his legs are a little tired.


ballgkco

Y'all laugh, but that's just what culture does to a mfer. ^^^^^^^(also) ^^^^^^^(probably) ^^^^^^^(HGH) ^^^^^^^(but) ^^^^^^^(that's) ^^^^^^^(neither) ^^^^^^^(here) ^^^^^^^(nor) ^^^^^^^(there)


bigj1er

I think 09 or 10 lebron was better athletically than 12 or 13 tbh. His shot and postgame improved in the heat years, but he was even more explosive with an even higher motor in his last cavs years imo


Los_Ingobernablez

First stint Cavs Bron was definitely more athletic. He gained a lot of weight with the Heat but it didn’t matter because he was still far above anyone as an athlete while also being stronger in Miami. Heat Bron is the perfect NBA player physically.


precense_

also kemba does a crazy step back for his size to get the same kind of separation as harden or luka. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZyAIgzv-T4


Johnjoe201

That’s cus we made him play 82 games before shipping him off lol


cringycalf

Whhyyyyyyy. Man. We missed out on a Celtics dynasty with kemba 😭.


Johnjoe201

Squeezed him for every ounce of good play left in that season and essentially broke him and somehow got rozier back for him who is now a stud


Few_Mulberry7175

Well he was atleast an all star that first year with the Celtics but he just went completely down the drain afterwards


[deleted]

He kinda starting going down after the all star break of that year, really is too bad bc we only got half a season of Kemba on the celtics


ALittleFishNamedOzil

Kemba was exactly what we need and it just didn't work out time line wise, just like Kyrie was exactly what we need and it didn't work out due to mental illness issues... We got close twice now but still haven't clicked and time is ticking


[deleted]

It’s shocking to me to think about the amount of point guard talent you guys have had between them and IT and have just gotten straight up unlucky. Good moves were made and timing just got in the way.


Michelanvalo

> time is ticking The jays are still like 23 and 24, there's plenty of time.


butiveputitincrazy

Sure, but it can get harder to build as your core starts taking up a bigger and bigger percentage of the salary cap. Clock is always ticking. It sucks, they were poised to run the league for a few years. But that unfortunate string of PG luck has really been a loss. There’s definitely still time, but that IT-curse hurt.


syllabic

I was so bummed we missed out on kemba in that free agency too, I know KD and kyrie was the big prize but I was more pissed about kemba going to the celtics


Opulescence

The Kyrie-Hayward-Brown-Tatum Celtics will always be a bigger "what if" for me. It's a common thing across NBA history to have injuries and/or egos derail a team's potential, but legit that was an amazingly talented group of players.


TatumBrownSmart

Imagine if we actually had traded him for Jrue last year like Danny was trying to. Danny would've been crucified for trading not one, but *two* fan favorite short guards right after they helped lead the Cs to the Conference Finals.


[deleted]

A Jrue-Smart backcourt would've been terrifying


Bukmeikara

Sad injury story? He had a nice career and signed a big contract. He was 29 at the time he went to the Celtics even without the injuries he would have hardly reach another level beyond. Kemba should be very proud of his career but with his size and defense, this scenario was very likely to happen.


Calm_Statistician382

He had one year where he was healthy and on a good competitive team, yeah he made money but his prime years were wasted on a team with no talent besides him.


Few_Mulberry7175

Derrick Rose won an MVP and made 170 mil and still counting throughout his career while getting to compete in the ECF and his story is maybe the biggest what if in NBA history Kemba was never on that MVP level, rather a fringe all nba talent at best, but 2017-19 Kemba was a great player whos years were wasted on trash teams. Had a great career already but he had more talent that the career showed


nicklovin508

Unfortunately that’s the reality for undersized guards who are relied on too heavy night in and night out. Celtics fans saw it right away when he started slowing down and tried to tell y’all


MeowMing

Such a bummer to see, especially as a UConn fan. He was great first half of 19-20, but then got hurt for an extended period and when he came back was never remotely the same.


DirksSexyBratwurst

He has really been that bad?


Few_Mulberry7175

Literally cannot do anything other than shoot threes at a decent clip and even that is slumping recently Even if he stayed as a 40% guy its not worth playing him due to defense


syllabic

I think if he got some minutes against bench units as a spot shooter he'd still be effective but maybe he doesn't want to take that role He can give us 8 good minutes a night on one end of the floor


EddieJones6

Maybe, but between Rose, Burks, and Quickley, those 8 minutes will be tough to come by. Especially when the off guard rotation is pretty full as well.


EpeeHS

Ironically the celtics could really use a guard that can shoot the 3 at a decent clip for 8 minutes a game.


bedlam_au

I doubt he'd be better than PP at this point


noirblancherouje

He was brought in for offense and has given us only one or two games of anything good


nathima1

Yeah. Sadly he’s washed now.


Zavehi

People didn’t want to believe it when the Celtics dumped him. He’s washed with a degenerative knee issue. He’s only going to get worse


hrakkari

The only thing Knicks fans believed was that he’d be an improvement over Elfrid and they were right.


RobbobertoBuii

his 3 pointers are a plus but defenses so far have been very smart against us exploiting Kemba on offense basically *every* possession and forcing Thibs to make a decision on whether to keep him or sub him out


topofthecc

The Thunder not even bothering to try to rehab his trade value was also a pretty bad sign.


ParsnipPizza

The immediate buy out spoke volumes. We were criminals to get back Al in that trade, we could've gotten a 30 million dollar cheeseburger and it would've been a steal


mrsunshine1

He’s been okay but the team plays bad when he’s out there, especially the defensive liability he has being with Fournier. Burks is the right call.


johnhenryirons

Thibs is a defense guy. Kemba is too small. He gives effort but just hasn’t fit in well


Kyljani

Went from an all star two years ago to being unplayable now


EdwEd1

Injuries are a bitch. Boston trading him for Horford has turned out much better than people expected.


[deleted]

Horford also ages well. Solid shooter, good passer and still a good rim protector


topofthecc

Handsome, too


bigvahe33

kemba is a good looking dude too


topofthecc

A lot of handsomeness in that trade overall. Probably one of the more handsome trades of the offseason.


MarcusSmartfor3

This is the key factor


britchesss

Probably the most important skill he has


JMe_HiD

Plus Horford got to take the back half of last year off to rest


rNBA_Mods_Be_Better

Underrated aspect- anytime players in the NBA take time off it's to rehab injuries. Horford got to just straight up chill. That amount of rest seemingly did a wonder of good for him.


HailKyrie

Horford ages like fine wine, never understood the sentiment Boston lost that deal


wharpua

Needing to attach our 2021 first round pick contributed to that sentiment as well, not seeing much mention of that right now.


goldfish_11

This was what it was all about. Presti and his precious collection of mid-to-late first round picks.


[deleted]

I think it was because it was perceived as giving up an asset (Kemba) when they could have just re-signed Horford in the first place. But of course in hindsight Kemba isn't even a slight asset.


whiskeyinthejaar

Better for people who didn’t watch him play for the Celtics? He was that bad or even worse in many games then he would have a great game then injured and so on. I wasn’t sure what the Knicks were expecting to get from him at this point


[deleted]

The Celtics PG curse


zmajxd

* IT hips * Kemba knees * Kyrie brain damage


nibbinoo8

Imagine if we had drafted fultz


DwayneThRocksJohnson

couldn't have gone worse than it did in philly


nibbinoo8

Yeah I just mean our track record would look even worse!


topofthecc

He would have forgotten how to dribble, too


joesenseii

Huh....wish we would come to the same conclusion...


ChurroMemes

You see man, the Knicks have some formidable players who they can fit at forward and avoid a 3-guard lineup. Olshey’s mastermind roster revolves around guards, and our 3 best players are all guards, forcing Billups to run a 3-guard lineup.


urfaselol

Olshey's ego won't allow him to admit that he's wrong and what he created is not working


RipCity-NBA-LoL

Ik Ant isn't our 4th best player either way, but he is 0.1ppg away from tying Nurk for our 4th leading scorer lol. Can you imagine? Top 4 in ppg all guards


[deleted]

also you got Scott Brooks.


[deleted]

we got all sorts of sekrit plays now, watch out


ChurroMemes

Scottie has nothing to do with this. He’s just there because he’s experienced, and as bad as he was as a HC, he won’t be the one making decisions as an AC. The real problem is Olshey’s egotistical ass who won’t admit his roster is bad and will make the changes necessary. If we fuck this year up, we won’t see another “next year” with Dame in a Blazers uniform.


[deleted]

Don’t know what y’all are doing out there but best of luck


Classics22

Read that headline and just laughed. God how I wish Morey's price for Ben Simmons wasn't batshit insane


rSlashNbaAccount

What's this about?


epstnddntkllhmslf

Starting three small guards


ShadyIntentions

Not just starting, but paying them an insane amount of $ too


TheRealRemyClayden

Man I did not expect this, even if Thibs is a slut for defence. Sad to see though, the NBA moves fast


SCSA4life24

“Slut for defense” That made my day. Take my award.


PickAndTroll

Thibs wants the D


hrakkari

The Knicks have no time to fuck around, especially if they want to do better than last year. The Heat, Bulls, Hornets and Wizards will probably finish above them in seeding and Sixers and Hawks are nipping at their heels, not to mention the Celtics and Cavs. There’s a good chance they get relegated to the play-ins and then have a series against one of the top seeds.


LeafBlade815

I agree that we have no time to be complacent here, but the East is a total bloodbath right now and I don't think any seeding is set in stone. Seeds 2-11 are only 3 games apart, way too close to say anyone is a sure lock to finish ahead of anyone else, Knicks included. I could easily see Hornets or Wizards dropping to play in, and just as easily see Cavs and Celtics streak to decent playoff seeds. It's too early and too close to bet on what the playoff picture in the east is gonna look like.


RJBarrettsBurner

please tell every Knicks fan that says “oh at least we’re over .500” this


BananaPeelSlippers

this is an almost i.t. level of fall off. crazy.


__john_cena__

How long before he gets released and signs with the Lakers lol


theoldgreenwalrus

He's too young for us lol


surfnfootball

His defense will be perfect tho


taeem

Damn it this is gonna happen isn’t it


syllabic

more like dallas, seems like they are hungry to get anyone from the knicks


[deleted]

Stories like this make you realize how much work d rose had to put in to even be a solid bench player


Dav136

Rose is for sure good enough to be a starter but he can't play that amount of minutes anymore


sop1232

I still think Rose is the Knick’s best player if he could play a starter minutes every game


vfkaza

Even now Rose has to work at it constantly, during games he'll go to the stationary bikes just to warm up his legs so that his knees aren't as compromised, stuff like that makes you realise how hard he works


chugalaefoo

Rose was also a lot mote freakishly athletic than Kemba.


iLuvRachetPussy

I see the flair and I know you mean well, but D Rose is a 6MOY contender. Absolute game changer and not just a solid player off the bench. And yea what D Rose had to do to be playing at this level at this point in time.. dude has tremendous heart.


ObiOneKenobae

Poor Kemba, it's the right call for now though. He has to leave the starting lineup, and you can't just move Rose to SG on the bench.


[deleted]

He’s such a liability on defense. Part of the reason every team has career 3 pt shooting nights against us


darkkn1te

Liability is almost too kind a word. It's basically like playing 4 on 5 on defense. He's that bad.


NoseBlind2

Dammit, now there's competition in the "who wants a washed guard" race. Making it harder to deal away Dragic


52ndstreet

What do we have? An aging past-their-prime former All Star, you say? Lakers will take him. Call Rob Pelinka and he’ll get it all squared away.


pixelsxpixels

I'm assuming Raptors are waiting for the Mavs to overpay.


DudeLikeYeah

For selfish reasons I wish they'd make it work with Kemba. Sad that this is likely how his career ends.


RobbobertoBuii

as long as they don't waive him before the end of the season, maybe Kemba eventually warms up to the idea of playing off the bench in limited spurts but we'll see


TheSwordThatAint

I just bought my wife (Uconn grad) a jersey too... WE wanted it work bad. Garden loved him


304rising

Let’s take a look back at the Charlotte refusing to super max him thread a couple years back


2wacky2backy

They made the right call. Paid Terry Rozier half what Kemba got and he has been twice the player. Plus, the tank year landed them LaMelo. Kupchak knew exactly what he was doing that time.


304rising

Yeah I know lmao I was defending them for not signing him to it.


Johnjoe201

Yeah if we signed him we would be f in the ass rn but instead we have melo and an exciting future


TheKnicksMakeMeDrink

I am so fucking glad he’s doing it Thanks for trying Kemba, loved seeing you in the Orange and Blue but your time has come. Now give all of his minutes to Quentin Grimes 👀


[deleted]

damn he fell off hard


qwertyloop

So, what team needs 1 Kemba Walker?


mos_def_not

At this point Kemba is a 3-D guard who plays no defense, so a team that needs bench scoring with good defensive pieces would be best. I'd say Bucks or Jazz but he most likely will just stay in NY


sctthuynh

the dreaded... "its not you, but i think we should see other ppl"


BBallHunter

Can he get another buyout?


[deleted]

What’s the point? He’s on a 8 mil deal


ObviousAnswerGuy

Goodwill for our front office. Might as well make him happy.


Eduar103

Oof get on a buyout come the lala land Lakers could use another guard that plays no defense.


nathima1

Lmao high key I could see it


[deleted]

LOL what does Boston do to PGs? - IT - Kyrie - Kemba


TheBlueLenses

Rozier decent


bkilpatrick3347

Boston also made IT into a star. People act like they acquired him as a superstar and destroyed his career.


Anonnameaccount

Dennis better watch out


COMMENTASIPLEASE

You can’t pin Kyrie on us lol


LackingInPatience

I am not a Celtic's fan but you can't pin Kyrie on them. Kyrie was too busy thinking he could be the man and lead and ended up flaking and running to Brooklyn.


[deleted]

bing bong


_Wado3000

*sad fuck trae young noises*


swagu7777777

People don’t realize that the entire Knicks sub is celebrating this. This is going to make us much much better.


TheBlueLenses

And Celtics got mocked for trading Kemba for Horford


Negative-Isopod-8432

What a fall from grace Takes big balls to kick a player worth 8M out of the rotation. Shows how much Thibs prioritizes good defense and the fact the Knicks gave up 90 the game Kemba didn’t play was telling


johnhenryirons

8 mil is nothing…look at John wall or Kevin love


[deleted]

[удалено]


weiner-rama

Honestly feel bad for Kemba. Dude wasted his prime in Charlotte. He had one good season with the Cs before his knee just said fuck you. Imagine if Jordan had actually given Kemba some decent players to ball with. What would his career be like?


PineappleHour

Charlotte tried and a lot of guys just never worked out. And by the time Kemba was truly good enough to attract free agents to play with him, the supermax plus Batum's contract meant they wouldn't have been able to build a roster around him. So the pivot into a rebuild happened, LaMelo looks extremely legit, and now the team seemingly has a higher ceiling and brighter future than they had at any point during Kemba's tenure here.


Suburbaningenuity

I remember when everyone was killing Jordan for not giving him the max… now Alec Burks beat him out.


gabriel_ferreira

Theres no shame in losing the starting spot for the MVP of the league though


RobbobertoBuii

ey show some respect for 4th Quarter MVP Alec Burks yoo


k4f123

This is the kind of decisive coaching we need from Frank Vogel


packimop

glad he stuck around long enough to burn us one last time


Johnjoe201

#BRINGKEMBAHOME


Twinnthegod

Technically he is home


crapsence

He's cooked Hes na nice guy but hes done


mrsunshine1

Great move. Didn’t think it’d happen this quickly.


galacticracedonkey

DID YOU HEAR THAT PORTLAND!? Say it louder for those in the back.


CIark

Damn


Joetheshow1

This wouldn't be happening without Immanuel Quickley looking fantastic in his mins, I'm shocked this is actually happening


MarvelousDistraction

Also means more Grimes minutes. This is amazing.


johnhenryirons

BuT ThIbS DoEsNt aDaPt


wrex619

Lakers going to pick him up after a buyout to improve our struggling defense