NY Knicks: 3 players who could lead team in assists this season

Does Kemba Walker have a chance to lead the NY Knicks in assists?

Kemba Walker has never been known as much of a playmaker and spent the first 8 years of his career as a score-first offensive dynamo.

Once considered more of a small Shooting Guard in a Point Guards body, Walker has always gotten buckets at will.

Being that he’s been the first option on offense in 8 out of the 10 years he’s been in the league, the fact that he’s averaging a lifetime of 5.4 assists per game is quite astounding.

In fact, his last year with Charlotte was his best season as a professional, averaging 5.9 dimes per contest while also touting the highest points per game total of his career with 25.6.

You could make an argument that this Knicks team is the best team he’s ever played on aside from the 2019-20 Celtics team he was a part of…and even that’s up for debate.

Taking that into consideration as well as the fact that Kemba has been suffering from chronic knee injuries for years now, he may be asked to take on more of a facilitating role as opposed to being the engine that makes the offense run.

Seeing how the Knicks now have a bunch of good, but not great playmakers all throughout the first and second units, it shouldn’t take more than about 6 assists per game to lead the entire team.

And even with what I would expect to be a somewhat limited role, with the Knicks’ starting 5 how it stands today, Kemba could accomplish that figure pretty easily.

It all depends on how Coach Thibs allocates the minutes at both guard spots because if they merely split the 48 minutes per game in half between Kemba and Derrick Rose, reaching this feat might be tough to do.

But if Thibs runs both guys out to close games at the 1 and the 2 and operate with a smaller backcourt, 6 assists per game should be a piece of cake.