What Kemba Walker's Role Will Look Like With Mavericks

After waiving veteran guard Facundo Campazzo, the Dallas Mavericks are prepared to sign former four-time All-Star Kemba Walker.

With Luka Doncic healthy and on the floor, the Dallas Mavericks have a chance to be a real, championship-like contending team in the Western Conference and they proved that a season ago by being one of the final two teams standing in the West.

However, outside of Doncic, it is really hard to find consistent production on this roster. Christian Wood has been a key addition to come off-the-bench for the Mavericks and he will likely find himself in the starting-five by the end of the year, Spencer Dinwiddie has filled the role of beingthe No. 2 option left behind by Jalen Brunson and Tim Hardaway Jr. can be a burst of scoring off-the-bench at times, but offensively, the Mavs can be a major liability.

Finding ways to better themselves offensively and take a lot of the strain off of Doncic is key for this organization, which is why they are bringing in former four-time All-Star guard Kemba Walker.

Early Monday morning, NBA insider Marc Stein was the first to report that the Mavericks would be waiving veteran guard Facundo Campazzo in order to make room for Walker, a player that the team has had their eyes on for quite some time.

The loss of Jalen Brunson in the offseason has very clearly affected this offense and having another experienced option in the backcourt who is not only comfortable creating for himself, but others as well will be key down the stretch for this team, hence why they have brought in Kemba Walker.

Now 32-years-old, Walker has dealt with a handful of knee injuries through the years that have resulted in him going from an All-Star talent to being nothing more than a bench contributor at this point in his career. Things did not work out for Walker with the New York Knicks a season ago and now, playing with Dallas may very well be his final chance to prove himself in this league.

So what can the veteran guard bring to the table for the Mavericks, a team that has high championship aspirations in a very crowded conference?

As mentioned before, the Mavs need some help offensively, as they are not very talented on that end of the floor outside of Luka Doncic. Having to do everything for this team right now, Doncic has barely checked out of games through the first quarter of the season, which causes some concern within this organization.

The wear and tear of a full 82-game slate is going to catch up to Doncic at some point, especially if he is playing upwards of 40 minutes in some games right now. Luka cannot do everything for this team and that was very clear to see in the playoffs last season when the Mavericks lost in the Western Conference Finals to the Golden State Warriors.

Dallas cannot afford Doncic to be tired or be dealing with some wear and tear injuries at the end of the year, which is why they need another reliable, consistent option in their backcourt other than Spencer Dinwiddie.

Kemba Walker is more than capable of scoring on his own, he is a very unselfish player with the ball in his hands and he could actually replicate Brunson’s role from last season fairly well since he is an “attack-first” type of guard on offense.

Dallas has lost seven of their last ten games since beginning the year 6-3 and the cause for concern surrounding this team should be fairly high. They are still one of the top defensive teams in the league, but the Mavericks are still trying to find their identity on the offensive-end of the floor.

“We wanted to add some flexibility to our offense,” owner Mark Cuban told Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News. “Like last year at this point, we have great shot quality, particularly from the three, but we have struggled to make enough of them. Kemba will give J-Kidd more offensive flexibility.”

Having someone like Walker come off-the-bench could wind up being a very effective move for the Mavericks, especially if he is still able to be a spark of scoring in a limited minutes role.

The question surrounding this signing of Walker for the Mavericks though is whether or not he can remain durable and if Walker can stay on the floor.

When he’s healthy, Kemba Walker is definitely a positive for any team to have on their bench. However, remaining available has been tough for the veteran through the years, which makes this a very questionable move for Dallas at this point.

Overall though, he has definitely proven to be a much more effective offensive weapon over the course of his career than Facundo Campazzo, so the Mavericks have very little to lose making this move, as the worst scenario for them is that Walker cannot stay healthy or simply does not produce off-the-bench. 

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