Kemba Walker has signed a $141 million deal with the Celtics, which is for 4 years. Walker had collected an average of 25.6 points last season, out of which 5.9 were assists and 4.4 rebounds each game for Charlotte. He is not a Pussy Cat but a heavyweight receiving all-NBA recognition of the third team. Furthermore, it has been stated that Brooklyn player Kyrie Irving will be replaced by Celtics’ Kemba Walker. According to the Boston Globe, the last season was quite frustrating for Celtic and the start to summer games was also disastrous. The Celtics’ could not acquire Anthony Davis and also were informed that Al Horsford and Kyrie Irving were interested in signing in other clubs.
The entire happenings were sufficient to make the franchise tremble and have second thoughts on rotating the system and make it a complete youth movement. However things were about to change and on Sunday, the Celtics made a comeback. Sports channel ESPN reported that they struck a 4 year deal with three times All-star point guard, Hornet’s Kemba Walker. It was yet to be confirmed officially but it was rather clear that this deal was on the cards. Walker has many a time proclaimed that he would always like to return back to the Hornets, who offered him a 5-year supermax contract worth $221 million or a max contract of $190 million.
Having said this, Walker also confirmed that Hornets never offered any such deal that even came close. As per reports, it has been noticed that the club and Walker have chosen to go in different directions because of all these issues. Everyone is now curious to watch how Brad Stevens, Boston’s coach will use Walker’s strengths. Celtic has been since then all the more focused on strengthening their frontcourt. He was playing for Hornets since the beginning of his first 8 seasons of the game.
In fact, it has been clarified that Walker was offered significantly less than what they should have because of Hornet’s luxury tax issues. Celtic had to persuade Walker to join them after leaving Hornet for all stated reasons and the 29-year-old player had done the same after much retrospection. It is high time that now the Celtics’ focus only on the replacement of Al Horford, who should be as big as him, in the team. On Sunday, it has been reported that there is news of a 3 team tier which involves Charlotte for Terry Rozier, Brooklyn for Kyrie Irving and Boston for Kemba Walker.
This is to be initiated so that Horford can be brought back and the amount of $9.8 million that is the full mid-level deviation value is generated. Celtic is on a continuous high since they signed Walker which is like a breath of fresh air from all the inconsistencies they have been facing for quite some time. As soon as this collaboration happened between Walker and Celtics, the winning streak of the historic NBA franchise was back. After joining Celtic, he also addressed questions where he was asked about the decision to quit Charlotte Hornets and join Boston. He addressed the issue with Scott Van Pelt, host of SportsCenter.
Walker has stated that he wanted to collaborate with something that was special where he would be able to compete at the highest level. He also added that he wanted to give himself “the best opportunity to make a run in the playoffs.” With the Hornets, he could qualify for the playoffs only twice in spite of playing for eight seasons. According to Walker, Celtics is only about the championship and winning and this is what he believes in and wants. He said that during the initial years of his career, he was not able to achieve what he truly wanted and was inconsistent in his victories.
Walker also said that it is only in Boston that he feels he will be able to achieve all the success and Boston too has been on a rose after he joined them. After the replacement of Kyrie Irving with Kemba Walker, Celtic will surely shoot up to make a place in the top 4 teams in the next season of Eastern Conference. Walker has a firm belief that the Celtics have great moves to make but is lacking in the center and depth in power forward in the frontcourt. He was the best leading scorer in Charlotte’s Hornet. The entire thing was informed to Charlotte by Walker himself and he also said that he is going to Celtic because Fe things have not been working as he would like them to.
Walker’s exit from Hornet’s will come as a huge blow for the entire team and as they say “one man’s loss is another man’s gain” and Celtic has definitely gained from this collaboration. This merger is proved to create a domino effect throughout the entire NBA free agency and a chain of events are said to follow. The Hornets will have to rebuild the entire team with Walker missing from his position and a player of the same level has to be brought as a replacement. The advantage that Celtics m ahs in this situation is that they will have an impressive line-up of four great players Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayward.
After all the drama and negativity that surrounded Celtic before Walker had joined, would now reduce or rather go away. Walker’s skills that he has developed over the years is something that is missing in some players of the same level and his dedication to honing them is what makes him better and different. His free throws have been known to be better than Kyrie Irving’s and his mere presence in the team will provide to be a huge Impetus for the team’s performance in the forthcoming matches. The transformation that came with Kyrie Irving being replaced by Kemba Walker was quite smooth as one all-rounder was replaced by another for the betterment of the team. Walker is definitely a better fit for the Celtics which will be shown in the future performances of the team.
