By Sam Perley, hornets.com
2015-16 Review | Kemba Walker
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Tipping Off
You would be hard-pressed to find any player on the Charlotte Hornets roster who took a bigger step forward this season than point guard, Kemba Walker, who finished the year as the team’s leading-scorer and established himself as one of the better players in the league at his position. After missing a career-high 20 games in the 2014-15 NBA campaign because of knee surgery, offseason adjustments to Walker’s shooting mechanics were a major reason he was able to post personal bests across the board this year in scoring (20.9 points), field-goal percentage (42.7 percent), three-point percentage (37.1 percent) and free-throw percentage (84.7 percent).
Big-Time Performances
One could point to a number of instances over the course of the entire season where Walker stepped up under tough circumstances though there are three in particular that really stand out. With the team trailing by 22 points in the second half of a Nov. 23 home contest against Sacramento, Walker led the way with a then-season-high 39 points (25 in the fourth quarter and overtime) as the Hornets pulled off a stunning 127-122 overtime win over the Kings. At the time, it was Charlotte’s second-largest comeback victory in franchise history.
Roughly two months later, Walker exploded for a career-high and franchise-record 52 points, nine rebounds and eight assists in Charlotte’s 124-119 double-overtime home victory on Jan. 18 against the Utah Jazz, which was also the highest-scoring performance by any NBA player ever on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Four days after that, Walker erupted for another 40 points, seven rebounds, nine assists and four steals in a 120-116 overtime road win against the Orlando Magic, which came despite the Hornets trailing by 15 points at the start of the fourth quarter. Walker’s huge run helped earn him the Eastern Conference Player of the Week Award for the third time in his career.
March to Playoffs
Some of the best basketball of Walker’s five-year NBA career came during the team’s season-high seven-game winning streak to kick off the month of March. The Charlotte point guard averaged 28.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.9 assists during this run, helping him pick up Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors for the second time this season and become the sixth player in franchise history to accomplish this feat multiple times in the same NBA campaign. Walker also scored 30-or-more points in a career-high four-consecutive games during this stretch, joining Glen Rice as the only Hornets players to ever do so.
First Postseason Win
Charlotte’s late-season playoff run held extra special meaning for Walker as the team’s longest-tenured player on the roster and he did not disappoint. After helping notch the team’s first playoff victory since 2002 in Game 3 of the first round against Miami on April 23, Walker then turned in 34-point and 37-point outings in Games 4 and 6, respectively, the latter of which was the second-highest scoring performance in Hornets postseason history.
Rewriting the Record Books
Walker’s impressive play this season moved him up many of the franchise’s career leaderboards in numerous statistical categories. After the conclusion of the regular season, Walker currently sits in fourth place in scoring (6,307 points), third in assists (1,946), sixth in steals (522), fifth in field goals (2,202), fourth in free throws (1,351) and second in three-pointers (522) on Charlotte’s all-time rankings.
2016-17 Outlook
Coming off a career year, Walker has firmly solidified himself as one of the top point guards in the Eastern Conference and should be in the running for his first All-Star nomination next season. He also finished runner-up for the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award this year behind only Portland’s C.J. McCollum.
“He’s gone from being say a top-15 point guard to top 10 and he’s done it for all the right reasons because he’s figured out what his weaknesses are and he’s worked on them,” said head coach Steve Clifford during the team’s exit interviews. “It just starts with who he is. He’s team first and he’s as good a competitor as I think there is anywhere.”
“It was a really, really great year for us, especially for myself individually. But when the time comes, I’ll talk to Coach [Steve Clifford], Coach [Steve] Hetzel and Coach [Bruce] Kreutzer and figure out the things that I need to improve on to take my game to the next level,” said Walker one day after the Hornets’ playoff run ended. “If we get a chance to bring a lot of these guys back, we are definitely moving in the right direction.”