Boston Celtics: A look at Kemba Walker’s tenure with the Cs

On Friday morning, Adrian Wojnarowski dropped another ‘Woj bomb,’ reporting that Kemba Walker had been traded to the OKC Thunder. The Boston Celtics traded Walker, the 16th pick in this year’s draft, and a 2025 second-round pick for Al Horford, Moses Brown, and a 2023 second-rounder.

Walker was acquired in the 2019 offseason as a replacement to Kyrie Irving, hoping to provide a better fit at point guard to the young roster. The Boston Celtics had come off an extremely disappointing 2018-19 campaign, falling to the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round after being a game away from the NBA finals the year prior.

Coming to Boston, Kemba was viewed as a reliable All-Star point guard who never had an adequate roster. In Charlotte, the entire offense revolved around him, with a 33.3 percent usage rate (98th percentile) in his final year in the Queen City.

This was bound to change in green, but he still held a major role, placing in the 70th percentile this past year.

The Boston Celtics had the right idea in acquiring Kemba Walker

In the first half of the 2019-20 season, Kemba was everything that the Boston Celtics needed — a productive scorer who can run the offense next to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Before the All-Star break, Walker was averaging 21.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, and five assists on 42.9 percent shooting from the floor and 38.8 percent from downtown.

Those numbers are akin to his best years in Charlotte — remaining efficient while scoring a bit less in total due to improved talent around him. Going into the break, Kemba had dealt with a sore knee, keeping him out of games here and there. Despite this, he played 29 minutes in the All-Star game, with many of those occurring in the intense fourth quarter due to the change in format.

He experienced more swelling after the Boston Celtics came back from the break, and was never the same, only averaging 14.4 points on less than 40 shooting in the ten games he played.

Since then, Walker’s knee has been a major concern for the medical staff, resting him on all back-to-backs this season.

Prior to his stint in Boston, Walker was known as a healthy player, playing all 82 games twice in his career and only missing six games the four seasons leading up to his signing.

Ultimately, it was extremely unlucky for both Kemba and the Cs, as it was nothing that anyone could have predicted. This situation was similar to Gordon Hayward’s, as he became an injury-stricken player during his time in Boston as well. Both of these scenarios outline unlucky injuries for the franchise during seasons in which they should have been competing.

It’s hard to judge Walker’s time in Boston, as he did have his fair share of clutch games and moments in his first season but frustrated many this past year. It will be interesting to see how he attempts to rebound his career in Oklahoma City, as he will look to return his value to the All-Star point guard that he once was.

In his second and final season in Boston Celtics green, Walker averaged 19.3 points, four rebounds, and 4.9 assists on 42 percent shooting from the floor and 36 percent from behind the arc.

Those numbers are slight declines on his totals from throughout his career, but both his lack of availability and knack to disappoint in late-game situations caused his falling out with the fans and front office.

He played in only 43 of the 72 games this season, and suffered another injury during the playoffs, unable to play in the two most important games of the year. It’s unfortunate that Kemba was not able to compete at his highest level due to unforeseen factors, but that does not mean the Boston Celtics were wrong to make this move.

At the time, Kemba Walker would have been the perfect replacement to Kyrie Irving and this Celtics team, and he was for a time.

Hopefully, Walker can go back to his Charlotte days in OKC and find himself again. But, with his injury history, the Celtics front office and Brad Stevens made the right decision to move on from him, looking to build a new contending team around Tatum and Brown.