The Kemba Walker Thread

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

I worry about Kemba under Silas, because Silas encourages shooting any time a shooter feels they can see the basket. With Kemba's already shot happy game I wonder where that will lead.

I don't. Look at Baron Davis' stats for his first 4 years. They were all under Silas. Then look at what happens after that....

[PacerRays07]

Hahaha this is ridiculous. Someone shows a little bit of character and a unique handshake and a story is made up about it. This is where society has taken us. Get over it.

[TheKingofSting]

I always like to point out the emergence of Jeremy Lamb late in the year when people say Kemba is just a chucker. Lamb will be in the NBA soon - maybe even lottery pick material - but it took him a while to get it. He showed flashes during the regular season (9 ppg), but battled confidence issues, hit the freshman wall, and his jumper wasn't there consistently (he barely played in Maui at the start of the year). Then it all clicked for him in the postseason, and he averaged 18 ppg in the Big East and NCAA Tourneys combined. UConn doesn't win the title without him.

Kemba helped make that emergence happen - once Lamb stepped up as a wing man, Kemba looked for him consistently. He assisted Lamb 14 times in the NCAA Tournament. Late in the Arizona game with Arizona up by three and with all the momentum, Kemba over-ruled his coach in the huddle and called a set for Lamb to get open on the baseline - ran that play twice in a row and got Lamb two buckets that turned the game around (UConn looked dead in the water before those two hoops). This was a case where if he was selfish, he would have insisted on getting the ball in those spots (to go down swinging with "his team"), but he recognized the importance of getting Lamb the ball there to prevent Arizona from keying on him down the stretch.

If Maggette or Henderson are knocking down shots, Kemba will find them.

Do you just keep copying and pasting the same post? I'm sure I've read this from you on two other occassions?

Passing the ball to a jump shooter and him stroking the J isn't really bing a creative PG though - right? I like it when PG's can draw the D to them either by demanding a double or dribbling into the paint and then kicking it out finding the open man. Having poise and the understanding of where everyone is on the floor at all times.

You keep saying how he had 14 assits off Lamb J's alone in the tourny - but didn't he only have a TOTAL of 22 assists for the tourney (including ZERO in the final?)

Zero assists but 19 fga's????

Kemba had 34 assists in the tourney (you probably didn't count the 12 against Bucknell). He had zero in the final, but take that with a grain of salt - that game was a brickfest in that Dome as nobody could hit a jumper. In the entire first half, the team's second and third options (Lamb and Oriakhi) were on the bench with foul trouble, and Kemba alternated between forcing shots to try to jump-start the team, and kicking the ball out to open guys who missed). The scorers jobbed him of an assist on a ball he dumped down to Oriakhi for a jump hook on the low block early in the second half, and twice he found guys for what should have been uncontested lay-ups who Butler was able to recover to foul and put on the line. NBA guys finish those plays. I had no problem with how Kemba orchestrated the team in that game - Butler really defends hard, and he played the last 10 minutes of the first half with two or three guys who average less than 2 ppg on the floor with him.

Getting the ball to a shooter in rhythm is a key part of being a PG, and many of the 14 assists I'm talking about were breaking down the defense, forcing help to come, and kicking it out to an open guy. If you don't like those assists - then he also fed Lamb for a lay-up down by one with 30 seconds left in the Big East championship game after breaking down four defenders.

It seems you and I would get along Great, I hope Kemba reads some of the message boards and blogs and sees some of the criticism and uses it as motivation!

[Battery]

DJ has got to go. Just get him out of here. One or two great games a month, a good game here and there and then a bunch of mediocre no shows throughout the entire season which is what DJ is. No consistency. People LOVE to chirp up his great games but they ignore the 40 or so no shows he has during the season. Hello? 40 or so no shows. Who cares if he plays like a superstar for 10 games??? The DJ era is over. (Thank God)


MJ should pay me for all of this excellent advice I've been giving him for the past 5 years.

You just hate DJ. I've learned to completely ignore every single thing you ever say, because it's always really bad.

EDIT This is a little harsh. But you're just a condescending **** who has been proven wrong time and time again on the court, so I don't really care what you have to say when you act like this.

Proven wrong about what?

Go back and pull up every single post of mine and you will see I was never wrong. And I was the ONLY one who talked up Henderson last summer!! All of you had no faith in him and wanted him gone. I was right about DJ too, same with Oka-stiff. If it were up to me, we would have gotten draft picks for that stiff at the trade deadline before he signed that ridiculous contract. I've been talking about payroll and roster FLEXIBILITY long long long before Cho arrived.

And I don't have to prove anything to you because if you have been reading what I write then you will know I'm usually spot on with my analysis and future projections of players. You probably copy my material and pass it off as your own on another board.

Also, don't be mad at me because you were wrong about DJ and I was right. You win some and you lose some. This one you lost.

[BobsBuddy]

Look my point is in requesting that it be locked down is that we can use these posts to really help our team whether comments be positive or negative. We read enough everyday about gang activities in our area. People are getting killed. I apologize if I offended anybodys right to free speech, but 22 out of 30 NBA Teams are currently losing money at the gate and it would be better time spent producing threads where we make suggestions of compromises on the upcoming Collective bargaining argeements rather than handshakes on draft night.. Cho and MJ are moving in the right direction trying to rebuild now and shed salaries. They will still put a quaility/entertaining team on the floor,but they need to stop the bleeding at the gate. Lets post topics to help them out and all get on board so that someday we have a Championship NBA team in Charlotte vus having a team that's consolidated into another team in another city because the league is downsizing for expense controls. YES CRUNCH..I WAS YELLING TO GET MY POINT OUT THERE FOR ALL OF US TO SEE!

[Marvel]

This is why i question myself, day to day, "why do i post on forums".

RIDICULOUS. It's funny what some people will believe and not believe.

[Bassman]

...that theory probably pertains more to guys like diaw, kwame and dante and less with his point guards. silas basically believes that if you have an open shot you should take it because you probably won't get a better look. but its not like he encourages his point guards to jack up bad shots. he wont like kemba be a gun. i am not worried about that.

If Kemba can hit shots we won't have to worry...teams will focus on stopping him, which will allow him to penetrate and set up other guys. It's the OTHER GUY'S that I worry about...hitting their shots after getting the dish from K-Swag.

It would not surprise me to see us go really small on occasion with Kemba, DJ, Hendo and Maggette, with BiBo, Meow or T2 manning the middle. That will only work in spurts or against specific matchups. I much prefer we find a better, bigger shooter at either the 2 or 3.

[fatlever]

both dj and kemba do a good job of getting into the lane and kicking out to shooters. we have to find shooters for them to kick out to. until then teams will have 5 dudes with a foot in the lane making that much tougher on our pgs.

[Battery]

If Kemba can hit shots we won't have to worry...teams will focus on stopping him, which will allow him to penetrate and set up other guys. It's the OTHER GUY'S that I worry about...hitting their shots after getting the dish from K-Swag.

It would not surprise me to see us go really small on occasion with Kemba, DJ, Hendo and Maggette, with BiBo, Meow or T2 manning the middle. That will only work in spurts or against specific matchups. I much prefer we find a better, bigger shooter at either the 2 or 3.

I wouldn't worry about anything next season, its a teaching and learning year for our youngins. The W-L record is secondary. We need to see who's in it for the long run and can be the building blocks of a contending team a couple years down the road. Right now we're at stage 1 which still involves dumping the excess crap from this roster. In a couple of seasons we will have the payroll and roster flexibility to add the necessary pieces to compliment our young players. So if we don't find that bigger shooter at the 2 or 3 now, it makes no difference because we have plenty of time to find one. MJ is looking at 2-3 years down the road, next season is all about development of what we have at the moment.

[nyhuskyfan]

It seems you and I would get along Great, I hope Kemba reads some of the message boards and blogs and sees some of the criticism and uses it as motivation!

The only tough thing is that I have to back off a bit from some of my pre-draft assertions. I insisted to everyone who said that Kemba was just a 2 guard in a point guard's body that he had plenty of point guard instincts and that he would play a more rounded game at the next level when he had more weapons on his team. Unfortunately, Charlotte won't have a lot of weapons around him at first, and they have DJ there too, so Kemba might have more value as a scorer and even play off the ball in a small backcourt (at least some of the time). He might try to play more like he did this past season at UConn than I originally thought (when he'd sometimes go off the ball looking to score and Napier would play point), and I'm sure he'll have some bad days doing it (like all rookies do). But then add, say, Harrison Barnes and a good free agent post scorer in year two, and I feel confident his game will adapt.

Kemba has heard all the criticism already - he found it amusing (and this is totally true) that in his first two seasons at UConn, nobody questioned his point guard skills, but people wondered if he could be a good enough scorer - particularly from the perimeter - to play at the next level.

[Marvel]

I think Kemba's pasing ability is underrated here. He's not an elite playmaker, but he can make plays, passes when he needs to adjust.

The Rice High School product was known as an unselfish playmaker earlier in his career. While his stats this season may lead some to the impression that he has gone away from that, his increased production stems from necessity more than anything. UConn cannot survive without Walker scoring in bunches.

From DraftExpress.com http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Kem ... z1QWIzJCHR
http://www.draftexpress.com

Don't mean to sound like a broken record, but i mentioned this aspect of his game long time ago. I think the most important thing to consider here is that he doesn't have the Russell Westbrook flaw. He has an equal balance of a scorer - passer/playmaker.

[BigSlam]

I'm not a fan of the two PG line up at all (not when both PG's are considered undersized) but I will say that if DJ and Kemba do see the court together it will be VERY nice to see someone on the court who can keep up with DJ on the break!!!

Plus, Kemba can throw down in the open court. Who doesn't like a little bloke who can throw down?!?!?!

[BigSlam]

[doc.end]

Kemba Walkers theme song [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6PyB9Feu_k[/youtube]

Fixed
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea4uc_1VGSE&feature=related[/youtube]

I haven't seen it, but I couldn't resist. Fits the swag, right?

[captaincrunk]

YES CRUNCH..I WAS YELLING TO GET MY POINT OUT THERE FOR ALL OF US TO SEE!

You use caps a smileys in place of good points and personality.

[Elden Payton]

^^^
Yeah I'm over the whole 2 PG thing
Knight/Felton
Felton/Mcinnis
Augustin/Felton
Augustin/Walker

I think our team has a fetish.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

Many teams that don't have an elite PG have two pretty good ones. The Bobcats problem is that none of their main guards, except for Knight, have ever worked well with competition. The team's chronic lack of depth at SG over the years has also lead to a lot of the 2 PG lineups where one guard is really forced to score more than they might otherwise have done.

[Elden Payton]

^^^^
& both guards are forced to get murdered on defense.

[Kembastockton]

Let's not forget that part of the reason for DJ's struggles was Larry Brown's infamous pressure on his point guards. Paul Silas is not nearly as hard to play for. Paul will make sure both kids are comfortable. That is what he does.

[Battery]

Let's not forget that part of the reason for DJ's struggles was Larry Brown's infamous pressure on his point guards. Paul Silas is not nearly as hard to play for. Paul will make sure both kids are comfortable. That is what he does.

Comfortable doesn't win you games in the NBA. A good NBA point guard must be smart and tough.

And let's not forget that part of the reason DJ did have a successful stretch of games is because we had a ridiculously easy schedule immediately following Larry's boot out of town. After that, he pretty much reverted back to the same inconsistent spotty confidence player he's always been since entering the league.