Leap Year - The Kemba Walker Thread III

[fatlever]

Which former Muggsy backup guard once scored 50 points in a game?

Delk?

You got it.

[fatlever]

Let me slightly change the parameters... I would take 2000-01 and 2001-02 Hornets for having the best Point Guard, Combo Guard, Point Forward combination in franchise history.

Baron Davis vs Kemba Walker
David Wesley vs Jeremy Lin
Jamal Mashburn vs Nic Batum

Those 3 combinations are very similar. Davis was bigger and stronger than Kemba, but he was, at heart, more of a scoring PG, than a passing PG, who also struggled at times with his jump shot. Kemba is quicker where Davis was stronger and more powerful. Wesley is a better all-around combo guard compared to Lin. Lin a better in the pick and roll and better pure passer, Wesley a better shooter, especially in catch-and-shoot situations and better defender (and this comes from someone who really likes Lin's defense, but Wesley is one of the more underrated defenders in franchise history). Masburn is simply superior to in every way to Batum, better scorer and passer.

Muggsy never had a competent backup, which was one of the biggest areas of concern for the early to mid-90s Hornets. The list of terrible backups behind Muggsy is just painful. The Bobcats/New Hornets have done a much much better job of always having two solid point guards. Even guys like Jason Hart would have been a big upgrade to some of the crap we put behind Muggsy.

interesting take. I enjoyed it.

and, oh yeah, I was looking through those Muggsy back-ups to refresh my memory. Tony Bennett and Greg Sutton... that's bad. moreover, if you look at the number of journeyman reserve guards (Rumeal Robinson, Steve Henson, Greg Grant) who we brought in, you know that they kept looking and just couldn't find the right man. I wonder what it would have been like if they gave Elliot "Socks" Perry a bit more time. he was decent for Barkley's Suns whenever KJ went down.

Don't such awful backups as Edridge Recasner, Corey Beck, Michael Holten, a washed up Ricky Green and Klalid Reeves. I think the Tony Bennett years were the worst. He could barely get the ball over halfcourt. We gave him more minutes than he deserved because we used a draft pick on him.

[LamarMatic7]

Let me slightly change the parameters... I would take 2000-01 and 2001-02 Hornets for having the best Point Guard, Combo Guard, Point Forward combination in franchise history.

Baron Davis vs Kemba Walker
David Wesley vs Jeremy Lin
Jamal Mashburn vs Nic Batum

Those 3 combinations are very similar. Davis was bigger and stronger than Kemba, but he was, at heart, more of a scoring PG, than a passing PG, who also struggled at times with his jump shot. Kemba is quicker where Davis was stronger and more powerful. Wesley is a better all-around combo guard compared to Lin. Lin a better in the pick and roll and better pure passer, Wesley a better shooter, especially in catch-and-shoot situations and better defender (and this comes from someone who really likes Lin's defense, but Wesley is one of the more underrated defenders in franchise history). Masburn is simply superior to in every way to Batum, better scorer and passer.

Muggsy never had a competent backup, which was one of the biggest areas of concern for the early to mid-90s Hornets. The list of terrible backups behind Muggsy is just painful. The Bobcats/New Hornets have done a much much better job of always having two solid point guards. Even guys like Jason Hart would have been a big upgrade to some of the crap we put behind Muggsy.

interesting take. I enjoyed it.

and, oh yeah, I was looking through those Muggsy back-ups to refresh my memory. Tony Bennett and Greg Sutton... that's bad. moreover, if you look at the number of journeyman reserve guards (Rumeal Robinson, Steve Henson, Greg Grant) who we brought in, you know that they kept looking and just couldn't find the right man. I wonder what it would have been like if they gave Elliot "Socks" Perry a bit more time. he was decent for Barkley's Suns whenever KJ went down.

Don't such awful backups as Edridge Recasner, Corey Beck, Michael Holten, a washed up Ricky Green and Klalid Reeves. I think the Tony Bennett years were the worst. He could barely get the ball over halfcourt. We gave him more minutes than he deserved because we used a draft pick on him.

maaan, these names.. Corey Beck!? I recognize like 98% of the players who played at least two or three seasons in the 90s. But I'm clueless about some of these guys, only to look up their unimpressive bk-ref pages and see that they had like 100 career games, 80 for the Hornets and average 10mpg, 2ppg, 1apg.

[BatumtheGlue]

He bricked a lot recently. He needs to bounce back next game. He played great last time we met the Jazz., so it will be a good chance for him.

[Elden Payton]

Kemba for Favors.

Would the Jazz do it?

[BatumtheGlue]

Kemba for Favors.

Would the Jazz do it?

Kemba for Gobert

[Elden Payton]

Kemba for Favors.

Would the Jazz do it?

Kemba for Gobert

I love Gobert as a player and he has tremendous upside, however Favors would be awesome on this team.

Lin/Roberts/Harrison
Batum/Daniels/Hairston
MKG/Hairston
Kaminsky/Zeller/Batum
Favors/Zeller/Jefferson

[BatumtheGlue]

Kemba for Favors.

Would the Jazz do it?

Kemba for Gobert

I love Gobert as a player and he has tremendous upside, however Favors would be awesome on this team.

Lin/Roberts/Harrison
Batum/Daniels/Hairston
MKG/Hairston
Kaminsky/Zeller/Batum
Favors/Zeller/Jefferson

We need a true rim protector and it's Gobert not Favors. I don't think the Jazz will do it tho.

[Elden Payton]

Kemba for Gobert

I love Gobert as a player and he has tremendous upside, however Favors would be awesome on this team.

Lin/Roberts/Harrison
Batum/Daniels/Hairston
MKG/Hairston
Kaminsky/Zeller/Batum
Favors/Zeller/Jefferson

We need a true rim protector and it's Gobert not Favors. I don't think the Jazz will do it tho.

Favors is an awesome defender in his own right but Gobert is special in that regard.

The Jazz need a PG in the worst way so I think they'd consider it at least.

[BatumtheGlue]

I love Gobert as a player and he has tremendous upside, however Favors would be awesome on this team.

Lin/Roberts/Harrison
Batum/Daniels/Hairston
MKG/Hairston
Kaminsky/Zeller/Batum
Favors/Zeller/Jefferson

We need a true rim protector and it's Gobert not Favors. I don't think the Jazz will do it tho.

Favors is an awesome defender in his own right but Gobert is special in that regard.

The Jazz need a PG in the worst way so I think they'd consider it at least.

We have more chance to trade Favors than Gobert. But i think the Jazz wont do this trade. It's true they need a PG right now, but once Exum recovers it wont be a problem anymore. They are for sure a playoff team next year barring injury talent wise. Beside that, i'd love to see Kemba to stay with the Hornets, he is a warrior and always gave his all on the court, although sometimes he will plays like an idiotic chucker. I'll take that...

[Elden Payton]

We need a true rim protector and it's Gobert not Favors. I don't think the Jazz will do it tho.

Favors is an awesome defender in his own right but Gobert is special in that regard.

The Jazz need a PG in the worst way so I think they'd consider it at least.

We have more chance to trade Favors than Gobert. But i think the Jazz wont do this trade. It's true they need a PG right now, but once Exum recovers it wont be a problem anymore. They are for sure a playoff team next year barring injury talent wise. Beside that, i'd love to see Kemba to stay with the Hornets, he is a warrior and always gave his all on the court, although sometimes he will plays like an idiotic chucker. I'll take that...

I'll post it on the trade thread so as not to derail this one.

I will say that even as an Australian I think Exum is overrated and is a few years away from contributing yet.

[catch20two]

That's what I'm talking about. I can't wait to trade Kemba. He's anti-winning. You just can't win with his chucker style of play. I'd rather give the keys to Brian Roberts but fortunately for us we have a better PG in Jeremy Lin. I hope a team do entertain a Kemba trade this deadline. Like I posted in the game thread, now is the best time to put him on the trade block while he's at a high.

[HornetJail]

Are we going to deal with this bullsh*t every time Kemba has a bad game?

[PG13]

Are we going to deal with this bullsh*t every time Kemba has a bad game?

Obviously the Hornets are committed to Kemba while Lin can be gone next year.

It's not so much about Kemba having a bad game, it's that he needs to change his style a bit and not be a Kobe Walker. I understand trying to pad your stat while the team is going nowhere (Bobcats), but we're trying to win games and make the playoffs this year. Otherwise Batum and Lin will be gone in the summer, no one will want to come, and the Hornets will become the Bobcats again.

We should stop saying "Kemba puts the team on his back". He just likes to shoot.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

Kemba is a SG forced to play point. If he had the size of a true SG he would be amazing and folks wouldn't complain about a few off shooting nights.

[fatlever]

Are we going to deal with this bullsh*t every time Kemba has a bad game?

Obviously the Hornets are committed to Kemba while Lin can be gone next year.

It's not so much about Kemba having a bad game, it's that he needs to change his style a bit and not be a Kobe Walker. I understand trying to pad your stat while the team is going nowhere (Bobcats), but we're trying to win games and make the playoffs this year. Otherwise Batum and Lin will be gone in the summer, no one will want to come, and the Hornets will become the Bobcats again.

We should stop saying "Kemba puts the team on his back". He just likes to shoot.

I get what you are saying, but just wanted to make one comment... I don't think its fair to insinuate Kemba is now or ever has in his career tried to stat pad. That's just not who he is as a person or a teammate. In his heart he believes he is going to make his next shot and that the shot he is taking is the best option for the team at that moment. Now we can argue all day about the fact that he does have poor shot selection at times and he does go into hero ball at the expense of ball movement, but he does it all with pure intentions. There have been a lot of chuckers in the NBA who cared about their stats above all else. Kemba is not one.

[yosemiteben]

We were down a bunch of guys, and I'm sure Kemba prepped for this game thinking it was on him to get us the win. For years we have relied on him to close out games for us and I think it's going to take a while for him to shed that mentality. Last night was a really good example of a game where he was pushing himself to close it out but that got us away from what enabled us to fight back into the game in the first place.

Kemba does put the team on his back - that is exactly the mentality he has. If he can maintain his current shooting %'s, then really the only major piece of his game that is missing is trusting and setting up his teammates. He needs to be able to use that attention that he has deservedly started to get from defenses and use that to free up his teammates and trust them to hit shots.

[cw3k]

If hero ball does not work for Melo or Harden, it will not work for Walkers. Melo and Harden are much more talented than Walkers, by a lot too.

I don't fault Walkers but the coach. Clifford should make Walkers accountability for his action.

[catch20two]

Trade Kemba to the Pelicans for Jrue and something else.

[Joest2003]

Anyone who looks at our current roster and says Kemba is the problem should probably get themselves checked out.