Free agent point guard Kemba Walker will resume his playing career in Europe, having signed with AS Monaco Basket for the 2023/24 season. The team, which competes in France’s LNB Pro A and the EuroLeague, confirmed the deal on Twitter.
A four-time NBA All-Star, Walker has been slowed in recent years by knee injuries. He was traded from New York to Detroit in a salary-dump deal during the 2022 offseason and was waived by the Pistons prior to the regular season. He caught on with the Mavericks in November, but appeared in just nine games for the team last season before being cut in January.
Walker, 33, can still be an effective offensive player when healthy. He has averaged 19.3 points and 5.3 assists per game over the course of 750 career NBA appearances, with shooting averages of .418/.360/.840. However, he was never an elite defender and his knee issues have exacerbated his struggles on that end of the court, which was a key factor in his lack of recent NBA opportunities.
Walker will be joining an AS Monaco team that finished with a 21-13 record in EuroLeague regular season play last season and advanced to the EuroLeague Final Four. Monaco lost in the first round of the Final Four, but won the third place game.
Mike James, Donatas Motiejunas, Jaron Blossomgame, Donta Hall, and Elie Okobo are among the other former NBA players on Monaco’s roster.
Per 36, Kemba avg 18-4-5, which puts him top 5 on the Mavs in per 36 stats last year. Seems strange hes not signed to an NBA team.
He’s a small, inefficient scorer who is terrible on defense. Also gets injured a lot.
lol. He doesn’t play any defense and his numbers are inflated by terrible efficiency. Walker was so overrated for so many years. Europe is the right spot for him at this point in his career.
No one plays defense, that argument is trash
Get ready to learn Monegasque buddy
If he stayed in Charlotte he’d be a living legend right now. At least for their terrible franchise. Sad to see it all unfold this way
Sad about what? His career didn’t end, a lot of xNba players see success in the Euroleague. Mirotic, Dante Exum just some of the examples.
I get that other leagues are a step or two lower than the NBA but the contracts are still in six figures and the lifestyle in all but the most industrial Eastern European cities is incredible. Way safer, less tax, better food, excellent infrastructure and incredible atmosphere in the stadiums they play in.
If NBA players represent the top 1 or 2% of professional basketball players globally, the top Euro League teams’ players occupy the next 10%.
The NBA fans that mock these signings really are clueless.
Definitely the NBA needs to expand, too many good players out there still looking for a team.
Tell me your Top5
Seattle, Columbus, San Diego, Montreal, Kansas City, Austin, Saint Louis, Tampa Bay all come to mind .That said the NBA can probably only have about 32 teams. Ideally we would limit each Metropolitan area to 1 team.Then relocate tiny market teams like New Orleans, Memphis and Oklahoma City. That would allow us to add 7 larger towns and yet only add 2 teams.
I would have to argue that Orlando, Indiana, and maybe Charlotte would be a lot smaller market teams than the 3 that you mentioned
Actually the 3 that you mentioned are all thriving very well and way above expectations and then just wait until after this season when Zion proves everyone wrong being healthy on the court along side Ingram doing the same thing creating space for C.J., Trey, and Herb (J.V. down in the paint?) the Pelicans will be nasty growing the fan base and market tremendously throughout the entire country and globally just you wait and see I’m banking on it and taking all bets
He was one of the best 15 guys out of the league last year and extremely talented. Hope he does good
Kemba has raked in almost 200 Million in his illustrious and highly lucrative career so no need to feel sorry for him. However he needs to make more money because he can’t feed his family with 200 million and that’s that.
Was with you for the first part..