A new season of the NBA feels good. You go into the year feeling optimistic about your team no matter what happened last year. Outlook has been recalibrated and you haven’t let down yet.
For the players, it feels totally fine. They’ve spent the break working on their game and conditioning and are ready to test it out in bootcamp, pre-season and regular season.
For players who have been through the rough 2022-23 period, this is a chance to start the journey in a dystopian year and write an even better chapter in the book which is their NBA career. While it is a team game, the NBA community focuses on individual performance and awards. And with only five players on the floor at any one time, these individual performances matter to the team as well.
Some players who have had rough seasons of 2021-22 need to bounce back more than others. Here are four in particular.
Kimba Walker, Nix (Photo by Michel Farsi/Getty Images)
NBA players need a comeback in 2022-23: Kemba Walker
- 2021-22 War: 1.2
- FiveThirtyEight WAR Drop: 2.8
For the most part, I’ve looked at long-time veterans when compiling this list when their (lack of) performance in the past year appears to indicate a slowdown in a career path and not necessarily a temporary, recoverable dip (example: Danny Green). However, Kemba Walker is a huge exception, because as fans, I think we need to Him to bounce back and come out on a high note.
Kemba Walker in modern history is not how fans want him to be remembered. Walker, who is entering his 12th season in the NBA, is an all-time star and should be known for his above-average (gross) career play, not the performance stigma we got from him in New York last season.
The Nicks story felt really cool at the moment, but in retrospect, it was clear that it wasn’t going to work. Walker is himself a New Yorker His most famous basketball moment that earned him the title kimba heart Happened at Madison Square Garden while at UCONN.
The fit, though, was not there.
Speaking of his struggles, Walker admitted he wasn’t used to the backseat role that Knicks asked him for, and he was. Took a lot to adapt to what is required of him:
“It’s very difficult,” Walker said. “It’s totally different. It’s a different time in my career. I’m in a completely different position and role. But yeah, that’s I have to learn to play with the guys and learn when to get my shots and it takes longer than I’d like to expect.”
Walker has been traded to the Detroit Pistons this off-season, and as a rebuilding team, it’s unclear exactly what they expect his role to be, or whether they might be looking to trade him back to secure more assets.
while the Likely to shop Walker pistons for competitorsNone of them are likely to want to spend the assets to acquire Walker when he is a potential takeover candidate later in the season.
In that respect, Detroit is probably a good place. He can spend his first months there mentoring young players like Cady Cunningham and Kylian Hayes while getting low-pressure minutes as a rotation player, making him feel comfortable out of the driver’s seat. Then, by the deadline, he might be traded in or bought, or he might even settle with Detroit for the year.
Whatever the case, every basketball fan wants to see Kimba rise a bit before pinning it on his solid career.
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