For the New York Knicks season to be successful, they need the chemistry between Julius Randle and Kemba Walker to work.
The oddsmakers in Vegas and a few Knicks haters may have forecasted Julius Randle’s regression before the start of this season. They may have even thought that Evan Fournier’s four-year $73 million contract would be viewed as an albatross and not a bargain. But it’s hard to believe that anyone could’ve foreseen Bronx-native Kemba Walker signing with the Knicks, being benched for 10 games, re-inserted into the lineup, and dropping a triple-double on Christmas day, all in one season. And yet that is where the Knicks currently are.
Prior to Walker’s demotion, the Knicks had lost six of their last 10 games and as a result, questions were growing regarding the starting lineup and their ability to play together. Despite some backlash, there were statistics that supported Tom Thibodeau’s decision. The starting lineup, which had logged the most minutes of any starting lineup in the league had a whopping net rating of -15.7. Additionally, they ranked 19th in offensive rating and 25th in defensive rating amongst five-man lineups who played at least 100 minutes together.
Furthermore, if we narrow it down to three-man lineups, the Knicks had four different combinations of players that had logged at least 400 minutes together, all with negative net ratings. However, there was a difference when Walker was included, as opposed to when he was not. The three-man line-up of Fournier, Randle, and RJ Barrett posted a -5.2 net rating while all other three-man combos featuring (Walker, Randle, Fournier -12.1), (Walker, Fournier, Barrett -12.2), and (Walker, Randle, Barrett -12.6) all had double-digit negative net ratings.
Of course, it would be too lazy to pin the Knicks’ underwhelming results this season solely on Walker. Maybe as fans, we expected too much from a veteran guard with knee issues dating back to last year. It should also be noted that, even at his best, Kemba is a volume scorer who has never been known for efficiency. Essentially, the best version of Kemba equates to the coach giving him the ball and watching him work; play-make off the pick and roll or create a shot for himself. Walker is currently taking a career-low 11.4 shots per game. During his four all-star seasons, Kemba averaged a 43 percent field goal percentage on 17.9 shots per game.
Even in his last year with Boston, Walker was still taking over 15 shots a game, on a team with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Granted this didn’t do them any favors in the win-loss column, but the point is, that even a less efficient, but still productive Kemba needs to be taking more than 11 shots a game. Either, give Kemba more of a scoring role or trade him.
For Randle, the situation is a bit more complicated. Plenty of detractors felt that Randle benefitted from inflated shooting numbers, which came from playing in empty arenas with no fans. I have a hard time believing that. The entire NBA played under the same circumstances, with the exception of a few states (and even those crowds were small), and everyone is entitled to a career year without minimizing their accomplishments. It’s possible that he just peaked, but what’s troubling is the perceived negative body language, languishing back on defense after a missed call, and over arguing with the refs. Still, Randle averaging 19 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists is nothing to sneeze at, albeit without much scoring efficiency.
During his career Randle played with Anthony Davis, who was taking over 18 shots a game, and yet, he was still more efficient during that season than he has been this year. Some fans have felt that the Julius-Kemba pairing wouldn’t work because Randle needs a true playmaker to help him unlock his game. Folks, the man played with Elfrid Payton last year and was selected to an All-NBA team, that ain’t it!
Unless this season is a complete statistical outlier from an efficiency standpoint, Randle will come back to a level comparable to what he’s produced over his eight-year career. The trick then becomes getting Kemba right. If you look at Walker’s shot chart this season compared with last year, you’ll notice that he’s shooting the three-ball way better this season (40 percent on 6.0 attempts as opposed to 36 percent on 8.3 attempts in 2020/2021), however, his efficiency at the rim is way down (56.8 percent at the rim in 2020/2021 and 44.6 percent at the rim in 2021/2022).
Simply put, more changes need to be made to the rotation and the starting lineup. One option would be to insert Quentin Grimes into the starting lineup in favor of Evan Fournier. Grimes is currently shooting 37 percent on just over three three-point attempts a game. Creating spacing so that Kemba can drive to the hoop is absolutely key for this team. Even though Fournier has not been a bad shooter this season, defensively, there’s much left to be desired from him in that area, and Grimes has proved that he can definitely hold his own. Plus, Grimes doesn’t command or need the ball to be effective, which gives more touches to Kemba or other players in the starting lineup.
Despite being benched for 10 games, Kemba Walker ranks within the 82.9th percentile in points per possession as a pick and roll ball-handler. Get Kemba into the paint and watch this team start to win again!
Stay tuned to KnicksFanTV.com for the latest Knicks news, rumors, and recaps throughout the 2021-22 NBA season. In case you missed it, check out Knicks Weekly where CP, JD, and Alex recap last week and take questions.
