NBA News: Kemba Walker To Sit Out First Few Weeks Of 2020-21 Season With Knee Injury
The Boston Celtics announced on Monday that point guard Kemba Walker will not suit up for the kickoff of the 2020-21 season due to a left knee injury, possibly sitting out until the first week of January at the earliest.
As reported by Yahoo Sports on Tuesday, Walker heeded the advice of “multiple” medical specialists earlier in the offseason, receiving a stem-cell injection in October and going on a 12-week program that was supposed to have him return to the court by early December. However, it appears that the Celtics are playing it safe by shelving their starting point guard for the first few weeks of the 2020-21 season.
“We are just being very cautious with Kemba,” Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge explained in a Monday interview.
“We are maintaining this strengthening program, which he has been very, very diligent in so far, and we’re encouraged that he will be able to return at full speed. But we do not want to rush the program.”
The Celtics reportedly plan to provide their next update on Walker by the first week of January, once his injury is reevaluated.
As shown on his Basketball-Reference player page, Walker averaged 20.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 4.8 assists and shot 42.5 percent from the field for the Celtics in the 2019-20 campaign — his first after playing his first eight seasons for the Charlotte Hornets. He was, however, slowed down by a sore left knee earlier this year, missing his first game on January 18 and sitting out another nine games just before the NBA went on hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic in March.
The aforementioned issue continued to bother him when the league resumed operations toward the end of July as he was unavailable for two out of Boston’s eight classification games and struggled a bit during the postseason despite posting solid numbers. The 30-year-old also underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in May 2017, though he remained durable in the two seasons that followed, missing only two regular-season games during that period.
As noted by Yahoo Sports, the Celtics have multiple players who could fill in for Walker during the early stages of the 2020-21 campaign. During the offseason, the organization signed veteran playmaker Jeff Teague as a free agent and also drafted University of Oregon point guard Payton Pritchard in the first round of the 2020 NBA Draft. Marcus Smart, who has excelled on defense as a part-time starter at both backcourt positions, could also fill the playmaking void while Walker sits out.
