Kemba Walker Says Knicks' Starters 'Still Trying to Find Our Way' amid Early Struggle
New York Knicks star Kemba Walker isn't panicking after the team slipped to 7-5 with a 112-100 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.
Walker told reporters Thursday the Knicks' starters "are still trying to find our way" and should figure things out:
It's somewhat ironic for the four-time All-Star to point out that the NBA season is still at an early juncture. Immediately after Wednesday's game, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau made the same point but struck a far different tone.
It's not an exaggeration to say the Knicks' starting five has been one of the NBA's worst lineups this season.
While his comments Wednesday night seemed to indicate a willingness to shake things up, Thibodeau ruled out making any changes to his first unit for the time being.
Some of New York's problems were foreseeable.
Neither Walker nor Evan Fournier is a plus defender, and the drop is particularly noticeable at point guard. For all of Elfrid Payton's faults, he was fourth at the position in ESPN.com's defensive real plus-minus (plus-2.50) last year.
In addition, New York replaced a spot-up shooter (Reggie Bullock) with Fournier, who wants the ball in his hands a little more. Fournier has a 21.9 percent usage rate, compared to 14.8 percent for Bullock, per Basketball Reference. The offense wasn't going to flow in quite the same way it did last year.
But few expected the growing pains to be this significant.
Perhaps the solution is simply benching Walker for Derrick Rose or swapping Fournier with Alec Burks. The latter in particular is an obvious pivot because Burks is a better defender.
In either case, though, there's the risk of messing up what's working for New York's bench. And considering Walker and Fournier will presumably have signed with the team on the basis of being a regular starter, taking one or both out of the equation would require some deft management.
Maybe Walker will be proven correct and things will even out over time. If a strategic change is eventually required, then Thibodeau could have a dilemma on his hands.
