Kemba Walker “Not all the way back yet” may be limited in camp

Kemba Walker surprised many of us when it was announced that he was going to have offseason surgery on his knee. Walker apparently tore his meniscus at some point during the season, but it wasn’t severe enough to the point that he was unable to play on it, and he managed to finish the season.

With today being media day, Head Coach of the Hornets, Steve Clifford, was asked about Walker’s current condition and while healthy it appears that Walker is still not yet fully healthy following his surgery.

So the good news is that Walker hasn’t had any setbacks by the sound of it, because if he had then he wouldn’t be participating in camp at all tomorrow. There is a slight amount of concern to hear that he’s starting off camp limited, but that may just be a case of the Hornets trying to get Walker back into the swing of things slowly. He’s been through plenty of training camps at this point of his career, and he’s never been known to come into camp out of shape. There’s no value to be gained in just throwing Walker right back into full contact workouts right after an injury. He’ll be ready by the time the season comes, and more importantly he needs to be healthy by the time the season begins.

Now, if Walker is still being limited or starts missing out on preseason games then there may be time for concern. He proved to be a key part to the Hornets playoff run last year, and with Jeremy Lin leaving in the offseason there’s a significant downgrade at the backup point guard spot. Having to start the season without their starting point guard is not how the Hornets want to kick off this new season where they fully expect to make the playoffs again.