What does Kemba Walker’s benching mean for the Knicks going forward?
Kemba Walker is not only out of the starting lineup, but out of the Knicks’ rotation altogether. What does the decision to start Alec Burks mean for the Knicks? What will Kemba’s benching mean for him and the team?
The homecoming is now staying home.
On Monday, Thibs announced two seismic shifts to the rotation: Alec Burks will now become the full-time starting point guard, and Kemba Walker, the Bronx’s own, would now be, in Thibs’ words, “out of the rotation.” This leaves a lot of cascading effects throughout the rest of the rotation and how the team will look in the future. However, with this announcement, we are left with more questions than answers.
Why Burks over IQ or Rose?
We all know that Burks has been a fantastic role player and played point guard down the stretch of some games last season. However, you’d think with Immanuel Quickley’s ascension as a playmaker or Thibs’ longtime trust in Derrick Rose, they’d be considered higher in the pecking order. Yet he decided to go with Burks, who isn’t be thought of as a “traditional” point guard by any means.
While Burks isn’t traditional, in this role he’s effective next to Randle, who, for all his woes early in the season, remains a fantastic playmaker with the ball in his hands. Burks’ ability to penetrate, his elite pull-up shooting, ability to make things happen when plays break down, as well as his size and activity on defense (only elite deflector Nerlens Noel gets more deflections per 36 than him on the team) make him a good fit for what the Knicks want to run on both ends of the ball.
If the Knicks’ perpetually tentative and hesitant starting lineup needs anything, it is simplicity, and in some ways Burks offers that in a way even IQ doesn’t: Randle has played with him before, and as a 6-foot-6 guard, he offers switch-ability and rebounding that even IQ at his most feisty does not.
Finally, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention Thibs’ affinity for the IQ/D-Rose pairing. Even with Quickley’s ascension to ReAl PoInT GuArD, you can bet your ass Thibs wants to let them continue hooping together. In that sense, starting AB lets Thibs have his cake and eat it too by solving some issues plaguing the starters and not sacrificing elite bench play.
How does this shape the rotation moving forward?
With Burks elevated to the starting lineup, that leaves the question of who will fill in for his minutes with the bench unit. While Quentin Grimes looks to be the fan favorite, there is a real chance Thibs isn’t ready to give him a consistent rotation spot yet, seeing as he mentioned “tightening” the rotation. The solution? RJ Barrett.
The third-year player has been in a massive slump as of late following his multiple game stretch of 20 points or more which had the embers of his All-Star potential looking like sparks ready to catch fire. With the creation of Fournier and Kemba inserted into the lineup, he hasn’t had the ability to truly stretch his wings a creator or a playmaker with the usage you’d ideally like to see him be at in this stage of his career. Minutes with the bench unit would allow RJ to play faster and versus less set defenses, play more with the ball in his hands, and get him the necessary reps of self creation and shotmaking he’d ideally need to blossom into a fully fledged All-Star — or at least back to where he was in October.
Thoughts on Kemba
It’s not sad to drop Kemba the player out of the rotation, but it is easy to feel for Kemba the person. Not even three months ago, he was part of the first bona fide press conference in the Leon Rose era and the city was buzzing with the excitement of its hometown hero coming back. He was the third piece of a trio formed with Julius and RJ that looked ready to establish themselves. He was the centerpiece of the City Edition jersey rollout that happened a few weeks ago, as much a part of the city itself than any other player on this team (or at least the only one high-profile enough to center a marketing campaign around, no offense, Taj and Obi). Now, after being salary dumped, bought out and benched in less than half a year, he looks to be following in the unfortunate footsteps of a lot of small guards who struggle with injury issues later in their careers. Every nanosecond of burst lost is worth its weight in blood when you are six feet tall in sneakers in this league.
That being said, he isn’t playing like Emmanuel Mudiay. He is taking more shots at the rim here than he did in Boston, albeit with less efficiency and rhythm. He is shooting the lights out, despite his catch-and-shoot opportunities going from 30% to less than 10% of his shots. On defense, he’s not being targeted any more than he was in years past — he simply hasn’t had the wings to cover for him that he had in Boston thanks to Julius and RJ’s entirely uninspiring defense to begin the season. There is a good argument — one you won’t hear much, sadly — that the issue is more of fit than ability than people are letting on.
We have all seen him turn quarters into the Kemba Show, but we’ve more often seen him disappear, or be tentative in directing Julius and friends around the court. What he truly lacks that IQ and AB and even D-Rose possess is versatility and consistency. And when IQ and AB are putting up elite eFG% thanks to their threes (above 50%) and defending multiple positions, and playing different positions on and off ball on offense, it only makes sense to relegate Kemba. There are no backup PG minutes for him because of D-Rose and IQ, more than because of Kemba himself. Other good teams in the East are unleashing backups like TJ McConnell, Raul Neto, and Gabe Vincent — none of those guys are in the same stratosphere as Derrick or Immanuel. Hence, casualty of fit. You can’t simply transfer AB’s bench wing minutes to Kemba, sadly. Is Kemba a starter? Not on a great team. But does he deserve backup minutes? Not here — but he most certainly could elsewhere.
So where does that leave us?
This hard decision making can and should also be seen as growth by the organization. After frustration regarding Elfrid Payton reached a boiling point in last year’s playoffs, Leon Rose, Thibs, and Co. did not let nostalgia and politics affect their ultimate goal: winning. Regardless of how unpopular the move may be, regardless of how this might unfairly hurt Kemba’s perception (given he would be at worst a fine backup point guard on many a team), the madman Thibs did it, showing he still has some surprises in store for us as an adaptable old curmudgeon beyond pushing the Knicks to shoot a ton of threes — yet again displaying the tweaks in philosophy he’s managed to show this year.
Will we look back on this change as a turning point in the season? Or will it be an instance of scooping water out of a sinking ship with a hole in the hull? Hard to say. But regardless of what the future holds for Kemba and the Knicks alike, one thing is for certain:
These aren’t yesterday’s Knicks.
