Veteran point guard Kemba Walker gave up $20MM in his buyout agreement with the Thunder, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link). Bobby Marks of ESPN (Instagram video) first reported that Walker was giving back $20MM as part of that deal.
Walker’s cap hit with Oklahoma City will be reduced by $9,777,778 in 2021/22 and by $10,222,222 in 2022/23, per Smith. The 31-year-old guard had originally been set to earn $36,016,200 this season and $37,653,300 in ’22/23.
It’s a significant concession by Walker, whose new deal with the Knicks is reportedly to be worth approximately $8-9MM per year over two seasons. It’ll be interesting to see whether his new salaries match the amounts he gave up in the buyout, or if he ends up making a little less as a result of his decision to play for his hometown team.
The terms of the buyout also help explain why the Thunder were willing to move on from Walker now rather than trying to rebuild his value during the coming season and flip him for an asset down the road.
Walker, who was traded from Boston to Oklahoma City in June, was limited to 43 games for the Celtics in 2020/21 due to knee issues, but put up strong numbers in the games he played, averaging 19.3 PPG, 4.9 APG, and 4.0 RPG on .420/.360/.899 shooting in 31.8 minutes per contest.
Walker officially cleared waivers on Sunday, so his new deal with New York can be completed anytime. The Knicks haven’t yet announced any of their free agent signings — they’ll likely finalize them one after another at some point, whether that happens today or later in the week.
Even if his salary is $2 million less than he would have gotten, percentage wise it’s not giving up much. Just a slightly smaller pile of money you probably won’t have enough time in your life to actually spend. Unless you are reckless, and in that case the extra $2 million wouldn’t last long anyway.
At some point you gotta think “I want to win now” and kemba went to uconn he should at least be knowledgeable to know what he does not know and have that money spread out among investments and savings, that 2 million can be made up if he’s smart anyhow
It’s not like Kemba has spent years on a non-playoff team or something. He was in the playoffs the past two years, so I wouldn’t think it would be a huge factor. Although I wouldn’t want to play on an unapologetically tanking team either. OKC had no intent on even trying to win last year and doesn’t seem to be changing its mind this season.
Most people would rather live in NYC rather than OKC. I am sure that is a factor.
I think that is an incorrect assumption. I’m sure there are some that would prefer NYC, but I am also sure there are some that would not. I have visited both and would prefer greatly to live in OKC over NYC.
I’m sure Walker might feel differently being from NYC, but phrases like “most people” are almost always dangerous.
I think based on their track record in bringing in free agents I’d say it safe to say morst players prefer NYC/Big metro city over OKC
I don’t know if I would want to live in Oklahoma, but I definitely wouldn’t want to live in NYC, unless it was in the suburbs in NJ or Long Island. I guess younger people would want to live there in the city with all that noise. Last time I was there in the 80’s the streets smelled like burning diesel from all the buses and trucks, no thanks.
a lot has changed with the city in those 40 years lol. there are a lot of quiet parts of the city in places like Brooklyn and queens.
As a Sooner, I am happy for that. Nothing here but fly over states….just stay on the coasts. :)
You should be proud of where you are from and there is nothing wrong with that. Also you should be upset and not want any person that does not want to be there. I did not like when Anthony Rendon when he said he did not want to sign with LA because they are too Hollywood. Karma took care of Mr. Anaheim.
I respectfully disagree with you hiflew. Yes NYC is not for everyone and OKC love their team and players and have a more forgiving media. But history has proven that free agents prefer certain cities over others. It does not happen %100 this way but the comment section here, baseball, and football rumors show fans in these cities get upset(and rightly so) when they are bypassed for a big city. NYC, LA, Chicago, etc is not for everyone but it is for the majority businessmen/athletes.
barely anyone chooses to go to chicago.
Can players negotiate to get some or all of the buyout money up front (or is that the default? I’m assuming it gets disbursed the same as normal salary)? If so, he could collect and invest it and come out ahead in the deal. iirc, Kobe Bryant had negotiated something in one of his deals where he got 80% of his full year salary in one lump sum.
It’s really not a significant concession.
He had two years left on his contract. So, OKC wasn’t going to pay him his full contract to grant him his release.
Now he gets almost the same salary he gave up to play where he wants.
Seems like a pretty good outcome for Walker.
Yea I didn’t get the significant concession wording either … I mean sure to you and I maybe but not here
HE GAVE UP $20 MIL. Whether or not he made up for it isn’t the point. He was going to get what he got from the Knicks anyway. He did OKC a solid.
OKC was under no obligation to buy him out. They could have kept Walker or traded him during the season.
You could argue that OKC did Walker the solid. But, either way Walker didn’t give much up in the end.
He doesn’t make the 17 then from Nyk….not following
He gave up ~3 mill at most…and got where he wanted to go, and will be a hero in Nyk if they go to Eastern Conf finals this year and will probably double that amount in endorsements in NYK alone …..I don’t think he gave up MUCH
I can’t see he gave up anything overall… he gave up a minus balance which means he got.
OKC has other PGs they want on the court… he wasn’t acquired because he was wanted. Knick money nearly makes up the difference on its own. He was always talking about NY when with CHA.
It would be more than worth it (even just on the economics) to give back some money to avoid being in the situation that Horford was with OKC last year. Horford played well and was still asked to take a seat the second part of the year so younger guys could play, and avoid the risk of injury. Not sure Horford will seek another contract at some point, but I’m pretty sure Walker will.
How many point guards do they have???
Wait… someone gave up 20mil to go play for the…. Knicks?
To get out of OKC.
If you deep dive a lot of the moves Presti has made..they have a lot of picks but the peripheral stuff is not great.
They have a lot of picks, but most of them are from teams that are actually trying to compete or at least are lotto protected, so really it’s a large collection of late first round picks. Those are nice and gems can be found late in the first, but more often than not its just a lot of role players. And OKC has never really been that successful in the draft outside of the top 5 picks. They also made very bad value picks this past draft.
I am not impressed with Presti at all, other than his ability to collect picks.
None of the 4 picks they will get from Houston will be that good.
Both of the ones they got during the draft that originally belonged to Detroit and Washington are heavily protected. Then the two in 2024 and 2026 will be late in the first round once the young core in Houston have turned the Rockets back into a playoff team.
LoL!!! That’s rich. Bunch of the picks are 3-5 years from now. You have ZERO idea who is “competing” and who isn’t.
This time last year, you had Harden and Westbrook and thought you were gonna run it back….
What happened? You tanked for the worst record and got the second pick overall. So don’t tell me that OKCs pick are all garbage. Truth is, you have zero clue as does everybody else. Injuries and trades are part of the game and they may end up in the lottery….probably more than once.
While I wasn’t crazy bout Presti’s pick at 6, he’s done a great job with this rebuild despite getting terrible luck on lottery night.
How long is this rebuild? 10 years? Because I do not even see a foundation yet on this house.
Presti got out from under the Westbrook deal and got picks for doing so.
Presti turned Chris Paul into an asset…image saying that 2 years ago when he was acquired from the Rockets
Presti went from Oladipo + Sabonis to Paul George to SGA and picks.
The best part is he’s taken on contracts, accumulated picks, and yet OKC isn’t in cap hell for years to come.
He’s drafted raw prospects with upside recently
Giddey is a 6’8″ PG that’s 18
Aleksej Pokusevski was a 7’0″ PF that was 18.
Went with the younger prospect in Bazeley (19) over Brandon Clarke (23).
Thunder have a very bright future and a young team to grow into. Theyre rebuilding. Ever since KD, Ibaka and the others left its been a looming rebuild.
Presti has navigated it beautifully so far.
He’s also had a small market team pay out what like 60+ million to have players not play. Yea he has a lot of picks and it’s hard to see the future as to where those picks will end up. But what he has gotten in return so far isn’t great. You guys might love Poku and Giddey and Bazeley. But you can’t look at any of them and be like yep that’s an all star. It’s been a lot of moving and shaking and I’m just not sure it’s gonna lead to much. He’s done a terrific job turning bad contracts into picks and rehabilitating distressed assets into tradeable ones. But some of the stuff he’s done to get there is questionable.
Poku was a mid round 1st, 17 I think, and Bazeley was in the 20s, like 21 I think.
Being outside the lottery and still finding good players isn’t a bad thing. Nobody expected “star” when they were drafted. But if they develop into good players for OKC well those were good picks given the value.
Let’s wait a few years and let the kids play before we write them off. You’re talking about guys under 21. Think be people forget how young they are and forget they’re in rebuilding mode.
I agree with you %100 on this one hiflew. I guess there is a first time for everything.
Pokusevski will be an allstar, Giddey will be an allstar. Tre Mann has big upside. There I said it. Having all those picks aren’t jut to draft. They are assets to trade or move up. Unfortunately OKC just gives away their talent sooner or later. KD, Westbrook, Ibaka, Jackson, Harden, Batum, Green. OKC has a chance to build a Contender. From the the ground up, the Draft. That’s the best way. We’ll see??
So he basically formed a high school team instead of a college team and you think that is a good thing for the NBA?
I wouldn’t call it beautiful navigation, I would call it an excuse to the owner for not fielding a winning team even longer.
I don’t get the beautiful navigation either
There are {many} folks in here that could have picked up a phone and say sure ill trade a good player for bad contracts+ future assets
Not in cap hell? Um thats bc they don’t sign anyone! They use the cap as a landfill (* Which the govt (*league) subsidizes) While it might be an easy kushy job you still have to work at a trash dump site year after year and it probably sticks to your clothes after some point!
* Also whats future FA’s to think upon inking a deal there? Should they be comfortable being treated as a person? Or just a column on the ledger that will be packed and shipped like an Amazon shipping center when seen fit?
Drafting high upside players from different countries? Yeah it’s a great thing for the NBA. See giannis and doncic. Nba could stand to add more international stars. It’d be great for the NBA if poku, giddey, or both develop into all stars. Hence the high upside picks.
I have not liked his last couple of drafts besides Maledon. Poku obviously has high upside, but I would’ve gone in a different direction there. I get it, though.
Folks just don’t want to admit that while he’s certainly not a bad GM, he lucked out big time on the Pg13 and Westbrook deals. It was a perfect storm of circumstances. Few GMs would have been dumb enough to not do the same deals in his shoes. And it’s doubtful he ever has that type of luck again in the future.
Of course, if the picks do pan out all will be well. But historically, he’s certainly done a mixed job drafting. Not bad, but I wouldn’t call the Thunder an upper echelon drafting organization. Durant, Westbrook and Harden were a looooong time ago.
I understand him not wanting to live in OKC. Not bashing OKC as I grew up in Central Kansas. Why would he want to go play for the Knicks. They don’t have a chance other than being a 7-8 seed ever. The team did what all TippyToe coach teams do which is improve the first year and then fall off. They won’t be a 4th seed this year especially having not 1 Superstar. He should of waited for a better offer. It would of come. Now instead,of losing in OKC he can lose in NYC.
Presti is what the GMs in the league have become. Avoids any high beta decision until compelled by circumstances, and, when compelled, looks principally to mitigating the downside. There are very few deal makers around any longer. I guess there’s no job security in it.
He’ll get OKC back to the playoffs with his piece collecting, but I doubt he ever puts together a championship team. If you can’t do it when you’re “gifted” Durant, RW and Harden in consecutive years, then you’re likely not up to it. Still, I’d rather have him than many of these other CEO wannabes. He’s at least a good asset manager. E.g., he bought out KW at the point that he’d get the biggest discount he’d ever see.
I cant blame Presti for Rd 1 in OKC – He got that team all the pieces they needed; at some point it’s on the players
I felt that those early year downfalls was more KD West and Harden all searching for their own personal success rather than team success. Presti even got them 2 solid brutes to do all the dirty work
Agree w paragraph 1 of your post very much so tho
I don’t blame him for any on court disappointments. I can’t point to any single decision he made or didn’t make that was bad. That’s the beauty of the Ainge-Presti approach: You can’t blame them.
Seriously, some GMs would have been more proactive in solving the facilitation problem. Team assists generally correlate to success. OKC was that very rare team that was top 3-5 or so in the standings, and bottom 3-5 in team assists. Can’t get over the top, maybe you act. Of course, maybe not, it would have been RISKY. Same with Harden. He seemed like a better long term fit with Durant even at the time. It would have been a bold move to deal RW and not Harden (assuming the luxury tax looming mandated it, as we’re told), but I think some GMs (maybe who are more basketball people) would have made it. RISKY, again, I get it. Other moves? Who knows, but you have a team THIS CLOSE, so young, identifiable issues, I think a more proactive GM might not be so patient.
Not exactly on point, but GSW traded Monta Ellis, not Curry. I think if, instead, they traded Curry, then they would have had “cover” for trading the lesser established guy. Cover, but no championships.
I admit I was super pissed when they traded Monte for broken Bogut. I thought Curry would have yearly ankle troubles and he never really showed much, his 5 year 55million contract I thought was a big risk. I was dead wrong.
I don’t get what the celtics we’re doing with the original trade… you got Horford which was ok but they also got Moses Brown who showed some pretty good progress towards the end of the season. But then they go out and trade Moses to the Mavs for Richardson which just brings in another decent wing but now their center depth is really thin… I think Stevens doesn’t really know what he’s doing.
Sorry, but whether Stevens does or doesn’t know what he’s doing isn’t going to be determined by anything relating to Moses Brown.
I understand that there are people on this Board that think he’s an asset, but the NBA (all teams) doesn’t agree. Some think Taco Fall is some great asset as well. The facts are that Brown is an undrafted guy going into his 3rd season, and will be with his 4th team. He was added to the Horford-Walker deal only to match salaries. OKC could have chosen any player on their roster to add to the deal, and they chose Brown. Mavs didn’t want him either, but Boston wanted to shed at least some salary in the deal. Again, any team that wanted him could have gotten him instead of the Mavs (who would have been happy if another team took the guy Boston was making them take to move JR).
So, Brown could go on to be Bill Russell, and it still says nothing about Stevens in particular, because all of the other 29 teams have valued him just as little (really as nothing at all other than a contract).
Dxc didnt just drop the mic he threw it on the fkn ground lol
Kemba giving up that much. Made it easier to buy him out now. It’s a good move cause they got what they wanted. And they need to play their picks. They are overcrowded at Guard. It really says something about you when you need to insult the Greatest city in American history. Over a basketball decision. Get an education and learn. Kemba is from NYC. Every player wants to play at home. Every player wants to help his hometown win. Knicks need help at PG, he’s a PG. Sometimes it’s just that easy. Watch the History channel if you do t like to read. It’s the NBA and rumors. Not the Housewife’s of HoopsRumors.