Three weeks before the start of the season, the thirty NBA franchises are quietly resuming their marks. Media day for some, start of the training camp for others, everyone has their own pace and here we start on a traditional slow pace in the morning and not too quickly in the evening. The Pistons? Ready to do battle (in the soft underbelly of the East) but above all ready to say thank you (for nothing) and goodbye to… Kemba Walker. Ah yes, it’s true that he in Detroit him.
Everything is going too fast in the NBA. Three years ago Kemba Walker shot nearly 26 pawns a game and became All-Star for the third of his four consecutive stars, and a few months later he was even catapulted to the top of the rankings of the all-time leading scorers. Hornets. In 2022? Kemba has creaky knees and he is nothing more than an asset to be tossed and tossed between franchises against Draft rounds…
The observation is a bit exaggerated but the truth is not so far away. Stationed in New York last season and regaining his former glory… just about once, Kemba Walker was above all a disappointment, once again hampered by injuries and therefore failing to turn the Knicks around. Now 32 years old and with his best years in the retro, Here he is now made to be a vulgar journeyman, traded in June on the side of the Pistons in the company of Jalen Duren, in a team in reconstruction and which seems not even to want his services. Worry ? Not many people are jostling at the gate of Kembaba, and now a few days before the opening of the Pistons training camp, the latter are preparing to give him the address of a bad room just to be sure that he doesn’t show up at training. Everything is going too fast in the NBA.
Pistons’ Kemba Walker will likely be away from the team as training camp opens this week, sources tell me and @JLEdwardsIII. Detroit will need to waive or trade a player by Oct. 17 to be at the league limit for standard roster spots going into the season.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 25, 2022
With 9 million remaining to be received next season on his contract, Kemba Walker no longer represents this player with a toxic contract that no one wants, but the Pistons for their part still have the clear desire not to see him show up at the restart, a little more hyped – and we understand them – by the development of their young rears (Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Killian Hayes). The deadline of October 17 takes on the air of the sword of Damocles here because after this date the Michigan franchise will have to resolve to count KW among its own, and Troy Weaver’s objective today is therefore to find a taker for his veteran leader, as soon as possible because time is running out.
A return to Charlotte to back LaMelo Ball and close the loop? A scenario that would be among the cutest. But the NBA is more of a business than a Care Bear business, and as of September 26, 2022, the man who was still one of the ten best leaders in the League three years ago is not far from becoming an outcast. What were we saying again? Ah yes, everything is going too fast in the NBA.