Kemba Walker set to return to NBA after exile from Knicks

Kemba Walker is back and perhaps in time for an uncomfortable reunion at MSG.

The four-time All-Star and Knicks bust is set to sign with the Dallas Mavericks, according to multiple reports, which will end Walker’s 10-month forced hiatus from basketball.

It’s unclear when Walker can play for the struggling Mavericks (9-10), who clearly need backcourt help after losing Jalen Brunson to the Knicks in free agency. But he has a few days until Dallas’ annual trip Saturday to the Garden, the site of Walker’s college and high school heroics.

Walker’s stint with the Knicks was a four-month disaster. He arrived last season on the carpet of a homecoming hero but was pulled from the rotation after just one month. A rash of injuries and COVID-19 infections forced coach Tom Thibodeau to reinsert Walker into the lineup, but the relationship was over by the All-Star break when the point guard was sent home per a “mutual agreement.”

“At first, it was a storybook. It was,” the Bronx-bred Walker said recently on an ESPN podcast. “It was something I was really looking forward to. Any kid would dream of playing for their home team, and I’ve dreamed about that for a very long time.

“When the opportunity came about, I was über-excited. But unfortunately, it just didn’t work out for me. Individually, I didn’t really fit the system and what those guys were trying to do over there. It just wasn’t for me.”

The ordeal was a pockmark on the tenures of Thibodeau and especially team president Leon Rose. Walker’s arthritic knee clearly wasn’t ready to carry the load of starting point guard, but the handling of his demotion underscored one of Thibodeau’s issues – a lack of communication.

Part of the confusion was in Thibodeau’s explanation for pulling Walker out of the rotation. The coach said he viewed Walker as a starter so he couldn’t play him off the bench. At the time, Walker, one of the league’s most popular veteran teammates, said he had no problems being a reserve and Thibodeau hadn’t addressed him about the abrupt role change.

It led to at least the perception of a rift.

For the Knicks front office, Walker’s signing was the emblematic failure of its terrible 2021 summer. Leon Rose entered that offseason with a playoff team and the most cap space in the NBA, which he used to sign Walker, Evan Fournier, Alec Burks, Nerlens Noel and Derrick Rose.

All of those acquisitions can be labeled disappointments. Walker, Burks and Noel were all traded in June as salary dumps to the Pistons, with draft capital attached.

Walker was waived by the Pistons and remained a free agent until the Mavericks took a gamble.

MIDDLING KNICKS

Twenty games into the season, the Knicks (9-11) are what most envisioned: middle of the pack, fighting to tread water.

“We’ve shown we have flashes of greatness in us,” Jalen Brunson said after Sunday’s loss to the Grizzlies. “And we’ve shown that we’re just one play away.  We’ve just got to continue to get better. We have a lot of room to continue to get better, a lot of room to catch our stride. We’ve just got to keep fighting, sticking together.”

New York’s  middling status is best exemplified by this statistic: the Knicks are 3-9 against teams currently above .500. They’re 6-2 against teams at or under .500.

The good news is they get a favorable matchup Tuesday night against the miserable Pistons (5-17).