Kemba Walker saga with Pistons headed to sad ending

What was suppose to be a quick parting and turned into a long drama, will finally be over, as the Detroit Pistons are reportedly going to give Kemba Walker his unconditional release.

The Pistons have 16 guaranteed NBA contracts but must get down to 15 before the start of the NBA regular season. It does not take a basketball wizard to figure out which player is going to be set loose.

Kemba Walker, 32, a four-time All-Star and an All-NBA player as recently as 2019, will be officially out of the league, waiting for a team that might need a point guard.

The strange turn of events occured due to something that the Pistons, and Walker’s previous employer, the New York Knicks, had not calculated – no NBA team would want Walker, even at a minimum salary.

It all seemed so simple back on June 28. The Knicks, in a salary dump, sent Walker and his $9.1 million contract, to Detroit as part of trade. The Pistons had no interest in Walker as a player, so they offered to immediately buy him out, offering him his salary minus $2.7 million, which is the veterans minimum he would get with another team, so he would lose no money on the deal.

So sure were both clubs this would occur, in a subsequent trade, the Knicks sent $6 million to Detroit to pay for the buyout.

And following all of that: crickets.

There were occasional rumors of the Phoenix Suns or Walker’s old club, the Charlotte Hornets, being interested, but nothing came of them.

Outside of Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey, Walker was probably the most talked about member of the Pistons this summer. It just seemed like such a mystery to fans: why was he still on the roster? It made no sense.

As summer turned into fall, the answer became obvious: No one else wanted Walker, and thus no one to pick up the $2.7 million difference, so he just stayed on the roster.

It seemed hard to believe, Walker did average 11 points a game for the Knicks last season, maybe not an All-Star but not a scrub. And, under NBA rules, any team can add a player at the vet minimum, so salary cap restrictions did not apply.

But when training camp opened, Walker was still on the roster. The Pistons simply announced Walker ‘would not be with the team’, which was kind of obvious, but also not particularly helpful. Walker would now have no training camp or chance to showcase himself in preseason games to other clubs.

Faced with either keeping Walker officially on the roster and hoping someone would pick him up, or cutting  player who has been practicing and playing with the team, the Pistons really did not have much of a choice.

Result of Kemba Walker getting released by Detroit Pistons

• Detroit owner Tom Gores has to pony up $2.7 million for a player who never set foot on a court in Detroit. No big deal to fans, but sure he is not thrilled. Price of doing business sometimes.
• More importantly, because there was no buyout, that $2.7 million stays on Detroit’s salary cap for this season. Not a big amount, but you never know when that money could have become handy in the future.
• Because he took up a roster spot, one young player could not be brought on the team and practice and play with them during training camp and exhibition games. It most likely would have been one of their Exhibit 10 signees, who could have gained valuable experience.

Of course, the one who lost the most is Walker. Yes, he gets his money, but he also has to suffer the public knowing that none of the 30 NBA teams want to take a chance on him, even at the lowest possible salary.

Walker is reportedly a good guy and the fact this drama has played out all summer has to be hurtful personally. However, for Pistons fans, Walker will be a thing of the past quite soon.