New York Knicks: What will happen next for Kemba Walker?

What a week it’s been for the New York Knicks and what a game it was on Saturday night when Kemba Walker returned to the rotation and dropped 29 points on his former team.

Amidst the Knicks’ struggles this season, Walker was taken out of the starting lineup and completely removed from the rotation a few weeks ago.

It was a move that was hotly debated among fans and analysts alike. Whatever struggles Kemba Walker had, it’s pretty clear that he is far from the sole problem on this team. It’s going to be tricky to figure out what comes next.

New York Knicks: What will happen with Kemba Walker?

If this were any other player, I’m not so sure this would be that much of a hot topic.

But Kemba Walker might be the highest New York City basketball royalty currently in the NBA. He is everything New York — he’s from the Bronx, played on the legendary Gauchos, went to Rice High School, and then went to play for the University of Connecticut where he had multiple iconic moments at Madison Square Garden.

Going into this season, this was supposed to be low stakes. An amazing homecoming for a player who, well, everyone acknowledged would be just a fraction of the player he once was.

This isn’t just any player. This is one of the most well-liked players in the NBA and he made it clear in his post-game conference on Saturday that he wants to play.

So does coach Tom Thibodeau swallow his pride and get him back in the rotation?

New York has been rocked by COVID and has about half of its active roster in safety protocols.

So the real question is: What happens when players come back?

There is now a microscope under Thibs and it seems to be that he needs to play Kemba. He doesn’t even need to start!

We talked about this regular season, how Rose and Walker would be fine in whatever they had.

Kemba is a pro’s pro. It seems like this situation can be repaired if he’s simply given a role within the rotation.

I’m going to speculate for a moment on the New York Knicks’ woes and the obvious tension going on right now. I think there is a philosophical difference between Thibodeau and the team’s front office.

We know the Knicks brought in multiple analytics analysts this offseason. We also know that Tom Thibodeau advocated bringing Reggie Bullock back.

It seems that this new Knicks roster where they have increased ball-handlers but much less attention to detail hasn’t fared well. It’s someone different night. We have seen multiple games stretches from just about every key player this season where they are negatively impacting the team.

At this point, we know Kemba isn’t the issue. We knew he was a flawed player. If Thibs doesn’t get him back into the rotation, I don’t see how he isn’t traded and this NYC reunion comes to a depressing end.