National Basketball Association

What benching Kemba Walker says about the New York Knicks moving forward

Updated Nov. 30, 2021 2:26 p.m. ET

By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer

It wasn’t that long ago when Tom Thibodeau refused to remove a struggling point guard from the Knicks’ starting lineup — to the point of absurdity.

By last season’s playoffs, the coach had clearly lost all confidence in Elfrid Payton. Yet it took two poor showings from Payton in the Knicks’ first-round matchup against the Hawks for Thibodeau to finally make a change.

This season, he didn’t wait as long.

On Monday, Thibodeau revealed to reporters that he was removing Kemba Walker, who signed a two-year deal worth $18 million over the summer, from the starting lineup. Not only that, but Thibodeau also said that Walker, "as of right now," would also be out of the rotation.

"I just don’t like the way we’ve been trending, the inconsistency of our team, and we’re gonna try to make a change," Thibodeau told reporters following the Knicks’ afternoon practice. "It’s a tough decision to make. But you always have to do what you think is best for the team."

The Knicks have started the season a solid 11-9, but their record masks some of the issues that have plagued them early on. Chief among them: Their starters have repeatedly come out looking disjointed, sluggish and in need of resuscitation from the second unit. It’s not all Walker’s fault, but if you look at how the Knicks have performed with and without him, it becomes clear why he was the one Thibodeau chose to demote.

Walker has struggled on offense, where his lack of size and diminished burst (multiple knee surgeries will do that) have turned him into a player overly reliant on his jumper. The 11.7 points per game he’s averaging is a career low. So are the 3.1 assists and 2.8 free throws per 100 possessions. His failure to jell with Julius Randle has been notable.

According to Cleaning the Glass, which excludes garbage time and some end-of-quarter possessions, the Knicks’ offense has performed at about the same level as that of the 25th-ranked San Antonio Spurs when Walker has played; when he’s sat, they’ve performed at the level of the No. 3-ranked Blazers.

But it has been Walker's play on the other end of the floor that has cost the Knicks most — and likely cost him his job. At 31, Walker is no longer agile enough to slide with lead ball handlers, and he’s too small to fight through screens. Having him on the court is like entering every defensive possession at a four-on-five disadvantage. It’s not necessarily Walker’s fault — though his effort this season has not always been great. It’s just what happens to undersized point guards once they hit their 30s.

The numbers are jarring. With Walker on the floor, the Knicks' defense has been two points per 100 possessions worse than that of the last-place Grizzlies. When he sits, they’ve been as stout as the top-ranked Warriors. Put it all together, and you have a player whose point differential is fifth-worst in the league.

"I want to get bigger. I want our defense to be more intact," Thibodeau said Monday. "So basically, that was it. We got to do something different."

This would appear to be one of the chief reasons for Thibodeau electing to start Alec Burks over the scorching Immanuel Quickley. At 6-foot-6, Burks is bigger and more capable of fighting over screens and harassing ball handlers from behind in the Knicks’ preferred pick-and-roll coverage, in which they drop their center into the paint.

Over the past two seasons, Burks, statistically, has been one of the Knicks’ best on-ball defenders, with opponents shooting 5.4% worse when guarded by him last season and 4.4% this season.

He also gives the Knicks the ability to switch, something they experimented with over the weekend against the Hawks. After playing a full season with the Knicks last year, Burks is now familiar with his fellow starters.

On offense, he will add a level of playmaking to the starting unit while being just as effective a jump-shooter as Walker (Burks has drilled 45.1% of his 4.6 long-distance attempts per game this season). And he’s comfortable playing alongside Randle, which this season has shown to be no easy task. The two shared the floor for 800 minutes last season, with the Knicks boasting a 5.8 net rating over that span.

Meanwhile, you can be sure Thibodeau will continue to rely on the Knicks’ juggernaut of a bench led by Quickley, Obi Toppin and Derrick Rose. The trio has formed one of the league’s most explosive units, with the Knicks outscoring opponents by 23.1 points per 100 possessions in the minutes they have shared the floor.

You could argue Quickley should have received the starting nod over Burks, but it’s understandable that Thibodeau would hesitate to break up that trio. Besides, if you’re looking for takeaways from Walker’s relegation, one has to be how much Thibodeau appears to believe in Quickley.

"I view Kemba as a starter, and so, it’d be tough to play three small guards together," Thibodeau said Monday.

The implication is there was no way he was going to take minutes away from Quickley. In fact, with Walker out of the rotation, chances are Quickley will get even more burn.

The question now is whether Walker was actually the disease plaguing the starters or just a symptom of a greater issue. He certainly wasn’t the only starter struggling. RJ Barrett is shooting an ugly 39.4% from the field. Randle’s efficiency and effort have regressed. Evan Fournier, fresh off receiving a contract with three guaranteed seasons for about $54 million, is averaging just 13.1 points and 1.8 assists and often appears lost on defense. The vibe around the group has not been great.

But the Knicks deserve credit for making this change. Remember, they celebrated Walker’s New York City homecoming with a tribute video and a fancy media conference. It was a signing they were excited about — understandably so. No, he’s not making big money, but the politics of the situation might have scared some teams out of demoting him. Just think back to last season with Payton.

The reason the Walker signing was a good gamble was because it was all upside. That wouldn’t have been so if the Knicks had kept him in the starting lineup. Removing him is unlikely to solve all their issues, but it does show Thibodeau and the Knicks aren’t afraid of confronting them.

Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of "Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports." Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.