Danny discusses Kemba

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30016418/boston-celtics-gm-says-kemba-walker-was-definitely-not-nba-bubble

Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge said star point guard Kemba Walker was "definitely not himself" during the team's stay inside the NBA's bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.

"I wasn't there [in the bubble]," Ainge said Thursday during his end-of-season conference call following the Celtics' loss to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals. "I was watching from here, but I could see, even when he was here before the bubble started -- which is why he was shut down a little bit and doing strength training and trying to prepare himself for the playoff run and the intensity of the playoff run -- but he was definitely not himself.

"In fairness to Kemba, he doesn't want to say that. He doesn't say that to our coaches. He doesn't say that to you, the media. He doesn't say that to me. I haven't heard one excuse from him. But watching the games, even the games we won, even the games where he played well, I could tell he wasn't the same physically as he was in October, November, December. So we're going to try to get that Kemba back

Walker has dealt with left knee issues since January. They plagued him during the final two months before the league shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic -- especially between the All-Star Game in mid-February and when the season was halted in mid-March -- and then again after Boston returned to practice in June before heading to Orlando.

After slowly ramping up to full minutes during the six weeks preceding the playoffs, Walker looked terrific in Boston's sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round. But he appeared to tweak his left knee again in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Toronto Raptors. And while he had good games after that, Walker never quite looked the same.

"I know Kemba wants to be back 100 percent and playing his best basketball," Ainge said. "Even not at his best, he still averaged 19 or 20 points per game in the playoffs. He still is a really good player, but he's not what he was. There's nothing more frustrating for an athlete to be on the biggest stage in the world in your sport and not be able to be yourself. I've been there before as a player. It's not fun. It's stressful. And Gordon [Hayward] and Kemba were trying to do that.

"I know everybody is banged up a little bit this time of year. I'm just saying those guys were ... they were limited on what they could do from what we are used to seeing in them."

Overall, Walker had a successful first season in Boston, helping to stabilize the organization after the departure of Kyrie Irving. Walker made his first deep playoff run after reaching the postseason only twice -- and losing in the first round both times -- during his eight years with the Charlotte Hornets.

"Kemba is a great person," Ainge said. "His leadership and being accountable ... he didn't make any excuses, he came to play, he realized the moment he was in. He's a player who understood how special it is to be here, and to never have those opportunities he's had in his career. But he has a smile on his face, he brings joy to the game and the team and the entire organization on a daily basis.

"He's just great to be around, and that's why I feel so bad. It's his first time on this big of a stage ... and he gave everything that he had. He played well, but we know that he wasn't himself. But he's a terrific leader and a terrific teammate and an amazing person."

Ainge is telling us a lot of what we already could see.  Kemba did not have that killer burst off the bounce and it really effected his ability to score. However he has never been a guy who could defend his own position and the knee issue just further diminished his defense.

This knee issue however is being framed like a sudden occurrence but we know there is history behind it.

Do not be surprised if they tell us that Kemba will be under-going  a procedure to clean out the knee.

One thing seems pretty clear to me.  His knee issue will flare up throughout the remainder of his career.  This is what has led me to think about them drafting a PG for the not too distant future.

Kemba works hard on defense. Steven's propensity to stick with his system regardless of personnel was , in my opinion, more at fault than Walker's defensive abilities. Switching in any and all circumstances was going to leave any small point guard at a disadvantage.Brad needs to learn to adapt his system to his personnel, not vice versa. Having Walker switch on to the likes of Adabayo was ridiculous. Kemba's faulty knee was a factor, as well. KW , when healthy, is at least as good a defender as IT, who I love, was, and his effort far outstrips the bigger Kyrie Irving. If you have a diminutive point guard , you can't put him in untenable situations and expect him to prosper.

jrleftfoot wrote:Kemba works hard on defense. Steven's propensity to stick with his system regardless of personnel was , in my opinion, more at fault than Walker's defensive abilities. Switching in any and all circumstances was going to leave any small point guard at a disadvantage.Brad needs to learn to adapt his system to his personnel, not vice versa. Having Walker switch on to the likes of Adabayo was ridiculous. Kemba's faulty knee was a factor, as well. KW , when healthy, is at least as good a defender as IT, who I love, was, and his effort far outstrips the bigger Kyrie Irving. If you have a diminutive point guard , you can't put him in untenable situations and expect him to prosper.

Foot

KW was getting beat by whomever he was covering.  IT also sucked at the point on defense  In the NBA you have to defend the PNR.  It has little to do with Stevens.  

Kemba has to switch onto someone.  Everybody has to switch onto someone because the other team is setting screens on offense on most non ISO plays.    Stevens used to hide IT and he also tried to hide Kemba.

There is no viable coaching solution unless you just do not play man to man defense.

The real solution is one of personnel.  We need a bigger and stronger starting PG.  Interestingly the NBA is moving away from jitterbug undersized PG's to bigger point guards.  A review of potential PG's in this years' draft reveals bigger PG's.

Danny is really the problem because he traded for Kemba based on his offense and then turned around and drafted 2 more midgets.  8 or 9 of the top rated PG's in this upcoming draft are all 6' 3" and over.

Kemba was not alone in his PNR defense.  Daniel Theis got caught quite a bit getting back over to his man after switches.

Was there a better point guard out there that wouldn't have cost significant assets? Should we have gone with Smart and Wanamaker? Reverted to the " process"ala Philly? It seems to me that both Nurse and Spoelstra used multiple defensive .Of course switching is necessary, but not always, with every personnel package. What big point guard should Ainge have drafted , traded for, or signed as a free agent? Just curious.

jrleftfoot wrote:Was there a better point guard out there that wouldn't have cost significant assets? Should we have gone with Smart and Wanamaker? Reverted to the " process"ala Philly? It seems to me that both Nurse and Spoelstra used multiple defensive .Of course switching is necessary, but not always, with every personnel package. What big point guard should Ainge have drafted , traded for, or signed as a free agent? Just curious.

I have not looked back to see who would have been available in the draft or free agency or the trade route.

Looking forward Kemba is locked in.  If his knee holds up he will be ok during a regular season game but when you get into the playoffs teams can game plan.

I would add a big PG add a big man and find a shooter off the bench.  Between the draft trades and free agency Danny should be able to do that.

Kemba Walker was a fine addition to this year's Cetics team. He played well when healthy, but mostly allowed Tatum and Brown to greatly improve their games to the point that they may be the best one/two forward group in the league already. I am sure that Irving would have again delayed the progress of both young guys and the entire team.

Our Celtics Friday morning breakfast group offered up some of the same thoughts that Ainge mentioned relating to Walker's play in the playoffs. He was just not as explosive, and when you are only 6'0 tall losing even only 10% of explosiveness is a lot. Credits to Walker for not doing and whining, complaining or making any excuses.

wideclyde wrote:Kemba Walker was a fine addition to this year's Cetics team.  He played well when healthy, but mostly allowed Tatum and Brown to greatly improve their games to the point that they may be the best one/two forward group in the league already.  I am sure that Irving would have again delayed the progress of both young guys and the entire team.

Our Celtics Friday morning breakfast group offered up some of the same thoughts that Ainge mentioned relating to Walker's play in the playoffs.  He was just not as explosive, and when you are only 6'0 tall losing even only 10% of explosiveness is a lot.  Credits to Walker for not doing and whining, complaining or making any excuses.

I agree and as Ainge pointed out Kemba brought a different attitude to coming to work each day than with Irving and his flat earth society crap.

Kemba's play in the playoffs was underwhelming.  Having said that we must also look at the difference between his impact on the two Js vs "He Who Shall Not Be Named".  Tatum might have taken his step up regardless, with Gordon's injury history he was the obvious #2 scorer on this team, but how about Brown?  Jaylen Brown's offensive game blossomed this year, in part, because he averaged more minutes than last year (25.9mpg vs 33.9mpg) but he also took more fgas/minute (14.9 fgas/36mpg vs 16.4 fgas/36mpg).  In fact, Jaylen's offensive numbers pretty much went up across the board.

....................mpg.........fgas/36......fg%......3ptfgas/36....3ptfg%.....ftas/36.....ft%.....Offrtg.....Defrtg
2018-19------25.9-------14.9--------46.5-----5.2------------34.4--------3.8-------65.8----104------109
2019-20------33.9-------16.5--------48.1-----6.3------------38.2--------4.5-------72.4----110------108

Some of this improvement is directly due to the hard work put in by the player himself.  Neither Ky (I almost said it!) nor Brad had anything to do with Jaylen's ft% increasing.  Might Brad have something to do with his getting 1.6 more ftas/game?  Sure.  He played him more and probably directed him to attack more, but it's still Jaylen who did it.  Jaylen's improvements at the line, both in attempts as well as efficiency, were worth an additional 43 points over the season.  Despite playing fewer games he played almost the same number of minutes as the previous year (1913 vs 1934).  43 more points in 57 games is good for .75 more ppg.  In a league where the distance from #1 offensive team Milwaukee and the #9 offensive team Boston is 5.0 points, and the distance between #9 and #13 (middle of the pack) is .9 ppg, Jaylen Brown's .75 additional ppg from the line is a big difference.

My point in writing all this out, aside from just geeking out on stats, is to point out that sometimes addition comes through subtraction.  Kemba isn't the ball-centric player you-know-who is, so Jaylen got to touch it more.  Kemba was willing to sacrifice some of his personal stats (he took almost 15% fewer fgas/minute) to be a more team player than he could afford to be in Charlotte.  That meant more shots for the Js, Gordon and anybody else who was open.

I was as down on Kemba during the playoffs as anybody, maybe even more than anybody else.   I thought his impact was inadequate and relatively insignificant, but his effect on the Js has been nothing but positive and that is very significant because they are our next 10 years and not him.


bob


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Kemba has been a great teammate.  There is no question about that.  If there is one thing we can look at on how his play impacted the rise of Jayson and Jaylen, it can be found under the FGA category.  At the very beginning of the season I suggested that he would need to take less shots.

He went from 20.5 FGA in his last year in Charlotte to 15.9 FGA in Boston.  To his credit he realized that he did not need to take more shots than Tatum and Brown.  That allowed them to prosper.

Tatum has been on a straight trajectory in each of his 3 years.  Jaylen however was greatly stymied because Brad Stevens is an idiot.  He only played 25.9 MPG during the regular season last year starting only 25 games all season.  Then in the playoffs he finally moved back into the starting lineup for all 9 playoff games, while averaging 30 MPG.

The issue with Kemba has nothing to do with him being a great teammate, a great guy or the consummate professional.  

The issue has to do with what appears to be a chronic knee problem that has clearly diminished his best attribute (Speed and quickness)  We saw his limitation at both ends.  I do not see this as a self-correcting problem.  Therefore I believe that Boston needs to consider drafting a young PG with measurables that are more in line with where the NBA has been heading.  Size being the biggest deviation away from undersized PG's.

Kemba has 3 years remaining on his contract so unless Danny trades him I expect that he will be here.  But perhaps we should take that with a grain of salt because Danny has traded away every starting PG that has ever played for him except for KI who left via FA.

Getting knocked out again in an ECF must give rise to changes.

dboss wrote:

jrleftfoot wrote:Was there a better point guard out there that wouldn't have cost significant assets? Should we have gone with Smart and Wanamaker? Reverted to the " process"ala Philly? It seems to me that both Nurse and Spoelstra used multiple defensive .Of course switching is necessary, but not always, with every personnel package. What big point guard should Ainge have drafted , traded for, or signed as a free agent? Just curious.

I have not looked back to see who would have been available in the draft or free agency or the trade route.

Looking forward Kemba is locked in.  If his knee holds up he will be ok during a regular season game but when you get into the playoffs teams can game plan.

I would add a big PG add a big man and find a shooter off the bench.  Between the draft trades and free agency Danny should be able to do that.

        Thanks for your response . I agree on  the Celtics needs. Point guard size seems to run in cycles in the Association, but  a Chauncey Billups type would be a welcome change for the Cs. I can't speak for Danny, but I think Kemba , flaws and all was a neccesity in order to keep the young guys used to winning and engaged. He and Hayward are both useful pieces, but I expect a lot of roster turnover before the Cs are title caliber. This season was fun ,  though, and I don't think it would have been without Walker.

yep, dboss. What I'm afraid of is that it's taken 7 years to this point with the rebuild and we've made it to the ECF 3 out of the 4 last season but no further. What I'm even more afraid of is us finally getting over the ECF hump, only to show up to the Finals and take just as long to win one title. Almost positive the fan base doesn't want that.

The teams in the East are tough. PHI with Doc, BKN, MIA, BOS, MIL and maybe even TOR again. One of those listed will be a disappointment. And to have this year's playoffs all fall apart around us slinging the door wide open to the finals and lose it to a team that now looks like they will be broomed out is even more disheartening.

db

Great debate with a host of variables as to Kemba's value going forward.

I think his pluses far outweigh his minuses and I don't see any scenario in which they seek to replace him. Especially in consideration of contracts that are coming up, the move that makes sense is adding depth at PG. Despite having at least one epic college battle against Walker, Wanamaker does not look like the second PG needed to succeed in today's NBA. Smart's game has evolved away from being the second PG.

A young, defense oriented, pass-first type PG, through the draft or other means, seems to make the most sense. There are going to be options in that direction that provide some insurance in case of a physical decline by Kemba, but Walker is a good fit as the way forward past the ECF in my thinking. I believe there are other areas that will help the team get over that hurdle, but taking Kemba out of the equation would seem a step backwards to me.

The one thing you can all say about Kemba is that he never gave up, never pouted whined or made excuses for himself. He was fighting right up until the end. Get used to it, he is here for a while. What a great teammate he was for this team. Remember, these guys had been playing ball from the summer of 2019 to the end of their season last week. The young guys handled themselves pretty good, but you could tell their legs were giving out toward the end. Too much basketball? I don't have the answer for that, only they could tell you.

I would rather have ten Kemba's than one Kyrie on my team. So I am happy with what he did for the culture of this group. Let's talk about stuff that could happen, it is over now. No sense kicking him around. As I said, he is going no where

I find it very interesting that everyone seems to be avoiding the knee issue. Beyond the 'he is too small' narrative, the knee issue may present limitations for the little guy going forward. We saw 3 playoff rounds and Kemba was less than 100%. The central theme of Danny's comments are right there.

The Celtics should prioritize adding a young PG who can be groomed as Kemba's replacement.

Rosalie, you are focusing on what a great guy he is. I am focusing on his long term health. I think every single player on this team is a great guy. We need to win the PG spot to stay in the thick of things. If Kemba's knee flares up during the season, he will miss games but if it flares up again in the playoffs we are cooked.

Danny did not avoid his knee issues, in fact, he is the one who brought it up. I will wait until the next couple of weeks to see if things change and they talk surgery. At this point, it is not a surgical issue. Only the Celtics and Kemba know for sure