Bill Walker - How did we let him go?

That's the question I had to ask myself, watching him play against the Heat tonight as the Knicks won. (Yes!!)

Hey worcester

My dumb ass turned that game off in disgust and here the damn knicks won it! So good for the Celtics! Al little breathing room.

Walker has a 3 that he never was allowed to shoot here,now his defense is coming, he was on Wade at crunch time defending him well.

Bill Walker is averaging 12.6mpg this season. He averaged 27.4 last season. I can understand his minutes getting cut, now that 'Melo's there, but he has not being given a lot of floor time by D'Antoni before that. In fact, if you look at Walker's numbers per 36 minutes of play, you see that all of his numbers are below his career averages except for 3ptfga (NOT fg%m), total rebounds and PF. That's not good.

I'm sure he had a good game against Miami, but that's not the same as having a good year. On any other night you've seen him, did he miss a lot of defensive assignments, like he did with us? Do Mike D'Antoni's players even know what defensive assignments are? Sure, a one-on-one defensive assignment, as in "you stick like glue to Wade and don't leave him no matter what", he can grasp, but how about team defense?

Sorry, still not a big Walker fan.

bob

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When you look at the backgrounds of some of the greatest players of all time, take as examples Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, and Michael Jordan, they were cut from their high school teams and had to work like crazy to make the grade as basketball players. They learned from those experiences and, when they did become stars, knew they had to work even harder and never take success for granted.

Then you have guys like Wilt Chamberlain, Lebron James and, although he doesn't really belong in this august company, Bill Walker. They were stars from the start and didn't learn the lessons of hard work and never giving up. That's the obstacle Walker has to overcome. If it comes out that Walker is working out after everyone else goes home, hanging around until they kick him out of the gym, if we hear that he's pushing his coaches to help him develop into a better player, then it'll be worth watching him. He's an exciting talent, but he has to overcome his own success.

It's a little ironic that so many people are so vocal about a two-year window for the Celtics, yet it's very likely that Walker could have not have helped the team come together as it did late last season, and Walker-as-student (and a slow-learning one at that); and he probably would not have helped Doc do his personnel balancing act this season.

Any real hope for Walker is in the future. The Celtics are more about right now.

Sam