It’s an opportunity for players that had a difficult 2022–2023 season to embark on a comeback year and add a more positive chapter to their NBA career’s book.
Despite the fact that basketball is a team sport, the NBA community is hooked on individual success and awards. These individual performances matter to the team as well because there are only five players on the floor at any given moment.
Some athletes who had difficult seasons in 2021–2022 need to recover more than others. These four are the main ones.
NBA players in need of a turnaround in 2022–2023
- 2021-22 WAR: 1.2
- FiveThirtyEight WAR projection: 2.8
When producing this list, I mostly ignored seasoned players whose (lack of) performance in the previous year appeared to be a sign of a career slowdown rather than a reversible short-term slump (i.e.: Danny Green). Kemba Walker, though, is a notable exception, as I believe we need him to recover and finish his career strong as fans.
Fans do not want to remember Kemba Walker as the Kemba Walker of recent times. Walker, a four-time All-Star entering his 12th NBA season, should be remembered for his (generally) above-average career play rather than the dismal showing we saw from him in New York last season.
Although the Knicks plot seemed fantastic at the time, it should have been obvious that it wouldn’t work in hindsight. Walker, a native New Yorker, played basketball for UCONN at the time of his most famous basketball play, which earned him the moniker Cardiac Kemba. Read More
