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A healthy Kemba Walker hoping to realize his full potential with Celtics
by bobheckler Mon Oct 12, 2020 2:59 pm
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/healthy-kemba-walker-hoping-realize-140058782.html
A healthy Kemba Walker hoping to realize his full potential with Celtics
Chris Forsberg
Mon, October 12, 2020, 7:00 AM PDT
*Each weekday for the rest of October, our Chris Forsberg will put a member of the 2019-20 Celtics under the microscope, assessing their season and what the future holds for that player.
16.9
That’s Kemba Walker’s Player Efficiency Rating for the 2020 playoffs. PER measures a players’ per-minute production and is standardized to a league average of 15. Walker’s 16.9 ranked 24th among all postseason participants and slotted him three spots behind Kelly Olynyk and one spot ahead of Rajon Rondo.
Which is to say, this year’s number was a bit underwhelming and likely a product of the knee woes that hindered Walker. His PER was a rock-solid 20 over 56 regular-season games for Boston and he’s maintained a PER of 21 over the course of four All-Star seasons starting in 2016. Even in his two short playoff stints with Charlotte earlier in his career, Walker’s PER was at 18.7.
It suggests we didn’t get to see the full potential of Playoff Kemba this season.
What went right for Walker in 2020
Walker’s arrival in Boston rinsed the bitter taste of the 2018-19 season out of the mouths of everyone inside the Auerbach Center. Walker bonded with fellow teammates Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown while trekking overseas to compete with Team USA.
Walker was a menace before his trip to All-Star weekend, averaging 21.8 points per game for the first half of the season while shooting 38.8 percent beyond the 3-point arc. For someone who had never advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs, Boston’s march to the conference finals was the deepest run of his career.
What went wrong for Walker in 2020
Knee woes started in early 2020 and lingered straight through the bubble experience. Not even four months of downtime was enough to get Walker right.
The Celtics ramped him up slowly inside the bubble in hopes of having him at full health in the postseason, but he seemed to struggle as minutes piled up, particularly in Round 2 against Toronto. Walker shot just 31 percent beyond the 3-point arc in the playoffs and the Heat targeted him defensively while exploiting size mismatches during the East finals.
Early outlook for Walker for 2021
While Danny Ainge said that Walker does not require surgery, a likely abbreviated offseason won’t afford much downtime. The Celtics need the Walker we saw at the end of the 2019 calendar year if they’re going to contend in a souped-up Eastern Conference in 2021.
The knee will be in the spotlight for a player who will turn 31 next season and, even as he defers more to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Celtics need Walker to be able to take over games when the younger players need a boost.
Walker has three years and $108 million remaining on his deal with Boston and the Celtics have to make sure that knee doesn’t become a lingering issue.
Bob
MY NOTE: Bah, humbug. John Hollinger's PER stat underweights defense, since it is not easily quantifiable (that's not just my opinion, it was Sam's as well, and he was a professional statistician). It is my opinion, based upon my eyeballs, his defense was not much better, if any, than IT's was. The difference between 6'0", 185# and 5'9", 185# is negligible when you're defending a player that's 6'6". I know I'm repeating myself but it's deja vu all over again (credit: Yogi Berra), I made the same point about the difference between Tremont Waters and Malachi Flynn. Kemba was constantly getting posted up by every team we played. Constantly. The strength of our defense is its flexibility and interchangeability of parts. Smart can guard Jaylen's man, Jaylen can guard Tatum's man, who can guard Theis' man, who can guard Kanter's man, etc. On our bench you have Wanny who can guard back court players, but who also defended Butler in the Miami series. Romeo can guard multiple positions, as can Grant, and they're both rookies. One of the few players we had who struggled on switches was Kemba. Explain to me how and why that would change. At least with IT we knew he was going to go off on offense every single chance he could. That might not be what we want in a starter but it is for a bench role player. Kemba isn't, nor will he probably ever be, a bench role player. I'm not saying this to promote the idea of bringing back IT, there's another thread dedicated to talking about that. This is about Kemba. I'm pointing out how underwhelming Kemba was in these playoffs and how I don't see how/why next year will be better.
Convince me I'm wrong.
.
A healthy Kemba Walker hoping to realize his full potential with Celtics
Chris Forsberg
Mon, October 12, 2020, 7:00 AM PDT
*Each weekday for the rest of October, our Chris Forsberg will put a member of the 2019-20 Celtics under the microscope, assessing their season and what the future holds for that player.
16.9
That’s Kemba Walker’s Player Efficiency Rating for the 2020 playoffs. PER measures a players’ per-minute production and is standardized to a league average of 15. Walker’s 16.9 ranked 24th among all postseason participants and slotted him three spots behind Kelly Olynyk and one spot ahead of Rajon Rondo.
Which is to say, this year’s number was a bit underwhelming and likely a product of the knee woes that hindered Walker. His PER was a rock-solid 20 over 56 regular-season games for Boston and he’s maintained a PER of 21 over the course of four All-Star seasons starting in 2016. Even in his two short playoff stints with Charlotte earlier in his career, Walker’s PER was at 18.7.
It suggests we didn’t get to see the full potential of Playoff Kemba this season.
What went right for Walker in 2020
Walker’s arrival in Boston rinsed the bitter taste of the 2018-19 season out of the mouths of everyone inside the Auerbach Center. Walker bonded with fellow teammates Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown while trekking overseas to compete with Team USA.
Walker was a menace before his trip to All-Star weekend, averaging 21.8 points per game for the first half of the season while shooting 38.8 percent beyond the 3-point arc. For someone who had never advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs, Boston’s march to the conference finals was the deepest run of his career.
What went wrong for Walker in 2020
Knee woes started in early 2020 and lingered straight through the bubble experience. Not even four months of downtime was enough to get Walker right.
The Celtics ramped him up slowly inside the bubble in hopes of having him at full health in the postseason, but he seemed to struggle as minutes piled up, particularly in Round 2 against Toronto. Walker shot just 31 percent beyond the 3-point arc in the playoffs and the Heat targeted him defensively while exploiting size mismatches during the East finals.
Early outlook for Walker for 2021
While Danny Ainge said that Walker does not require surgery, a likely abbreviated offseason won’t afford much downtime. The Celtics need the Walker we saw at the end of the 2019 calendar year if they’re going to contend in a souped-up Eastern Conference in 2021.
The knee will be in the spotlight for a player who will turn 31 next season and, even as he defers more to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the Celtics need Walker to be able to take over games when the younger players need a boost.
Walker has three years and $108 million remaining on his deal with Boston and the Celtics have to make sure that knee doesn’t become a lingering issue.
Bob
MY NOTE: Bah, humbug. John Hollinger's PER stat underweights defense, since it is not easily quantifiable (that's not just my opinion, it was Sam's as well, and he was a professional statistician). It is my opinion, based upon my eyeballs, his defense was not much better, if any, than IT's was. The difference between 6'0", 185# and 5'9", 185# is negligible when you're defending a player that's 6'6". I know I'm repeating myself but it's deja vu all over again (credit: Yogi Berra), I made the same point about the difference between Tremont Waters and Malachi Flynn. Kemba was constantly getting posted up by every team we played. Constantly. The strength of our defense is its flexibility and interchangeability of parts. Smart can guard Jaylen's man, Jaylen can guard Tatum's man, who can guard Theis' man, who can guard Kanter's man, etc. On our bench you have Wanny who can guard back court players, but who also defended Butler in the Miami series. Romeo can guard multiple positions, as can Grant, and they're both rookies. One of the few players we had who struggled on switches was Kemba. Explain to me how and why that would change. At least with IT we knew he was going to go off on offense every single chance he could. That might not be what we want in a starter but it is for a bench role player. Kemba isn't, nor will he probably ever be, a bench role player. I'm not saying this to promote the idea of bringing back IT, there's another thread dedicated to talking about that. This is about Kemba. I'm pointing out how underwhelming Kemba was in these playoffs and how I don't see how/why next year will be better.
Convince me I'm wrong.
.
bobheckler- Posts : 61428
Join date : 2009-10-28
Re: A healthy Kemba Walker hoping to realize his full potential with Celtics
by Ktron Mon Oct 12, 2020 7:20 pm
I think you’re right Bob. I watched game 7 against Toronto again yesterday. (I refuse to allow purple and gold to dawn my flat screen).
Kemba, bless his heart, was completely out of sorts defensively and looked ordinary at best offensively. I don’t know what to attribute this to other than that he is not a very good defender. But offensively, he got exposed in the playoffs. Maybe it was his knee, but if a box and 1 or a zone can take out the opposing teams best or 2nd best scorer, that either says something about that player or the head coach..or both!
Kemba, bless his heart, was completely out of sorts defensively and looked ordinary at best offensively. I don’t know what to attribute this to other than that he is not a very good defender. But offensively, he got exposed in the playoffs. Maybe it was his knee, but if a box and 1 or a zone can take out the opposing teams best or 2nd best scorer, that either says something about that player or the head coach..or both!
Ktron- Posts : 8381
Join date : 2014-01-22
Re: A healthy Kemba Walker hoping to realize his full potential with Celtics
by dboss Mon Oct 12, 2020 8:16 pm
The concern for the Celtics and their fans is the health of Kemba Walker. He played his heart out. No one will ever accuse him of not trying hard. After resting the knee for 4 months and being eased back into regular minutes the toll it took on his knee was obvious.
The new season is going to resume in a few months. If Kemba's knee is still weak his restart must be delayed. From what I have read kemba will have an arthritic condition going forward. That condition will need to be managed. The Celtics have another $108 million reason to manage the knee.
Moving forward, the Celtics would be prudent to draft a PG now. The question for the Celtics should be how high up do they need to be to draft a high quality PG.
I would not have imagined that drafting yet another PG would be a priority.
Buy the time the J's enter their prime KW will probably be gone from this team.
The new season is going to resume in a few months. If Kemba's knee is still weak his restart must be delayed. From what I have read kemba will have an arthritic condition going forward. That condition will need to be managed. The Celtics have another $108 million reason to manage the knee.
Moving forward, the Celtics would be prudent to draft a PG now. The question for the Celtics should be how high up do they need to be to draft a high quality PG.
I would not have imagined that drafting yet another PG would be a priority.
Buy the time the J's enter their prime KW will probably be gone from this team.
dboss- Posts : 18768
Join date : 2009-11-01
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