Knicks point guard Kemba Walker will return tonight against the Timberwolves after missing the team’s previous nine games due to a sore left knee, the Knicks’ PR team has announced (Twitter link).
Tim Bontemps of ESPN tweets that Walker will start at the point for New York. He’ll displace combo guard Alec Burks in the starting lineup and probably siphon off some minutes from fellow guards Immanuel Quickley and Quentin Grimes. Key reserve point guard Derrick Rose is out for an extended period of time as he recovers from an ankle surgery.
Walker, a Bronx native, has had an up-and-down first year with his hometown club. After opening the season as the team’s starting point guard, his defensive deficiencies led to his benching. COVID-19 issues compelled head coach Tom Thibodeau to re-insert Walker into the starting lineup, and he promptly enjoyed some of his best games of the season.
In his 24 games with the Knicks, all starts, Walker is averaging 13.6 PPG, 3.6 APG, 3.5 RPG and 0.8 SPG this season. The four-time All-Star, 31, will be counted upon to help stabilize the team’s point guard position. At 22-22, the Knicks currently occupy the No. 11 seed in a hyper-competitive Eastern Conference this season.
Man I want to see the Knicks make a move to address the offense, would be great to see them add De’aaron Fox at PG with Reddish and Barrett as his wings and Randle and Robinson downlow, not even a Knicks fan but I could see Fox very much succeeding with Thibs being friendly to shoot first Uber talented PGs
Would love Fox in NY but I don’t think a package led by OB1 with picks is enough to get Fox
No way am I trading Obi! Including Quickley as well. I would trade Mitch and Noel, Julius also.
Drose is untradeable and Kemba has an easy contract and after next year we can let him go.
Our starting five should be:
Mitch
Obi
Cam
RJ
Quickley
With McBride off the bench as pg/sg relief. And Grimes off the bench for scoring.
That’s our future!