Team Walton is for journeymen thriving in unexpectedly large roles, and NBA players are confident sorts; they rarely find their individual success surprising.
So let me be clear: This is a celebration! Not everyone can be a superstar. It takes dedication for players to expand their games midcareer, survive under a heavier burden of minutes, and blend into different rosters as the NBA’s transaction wheel flings them around the league. A Walton is a hardened chameleon, and the league is filled with them this season; competition for a Walton spot has never been tougher.
A reminder: We steer away from young players who have stuck with one team and gradually climbed higher on the roster totem pole. You won’t see Cory Joseph, Donatas Motiejunas, Solomon Hill, Kyle O’Quinn, or Evan Fournier1 on this roster. They’ve all been solid, but they haven’t yet acquired the soul of a Walton.
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C: Chris Kaman, Portland Trail Blazers
The league’s preeminent horror-movie villain has found a similarly snug fit within Portland’s dropback scheme on defense. Kaman is huge, and he has a small deterrent effect just by standing near the basket. He’s nimble enough to keep skittish ball handlers in front of him, too — but he’s also ground-bound; water-bug attackers know they can go right at Kaman’s body and launch shots over his fingertips. Opponents have hit 52.5 percent of their close shots when he is nearby, a below-average mark among rotation big men.
Still: Kaman has been a stable bench presence for a team in desperate need of one. He was Portland’s last-minute consolation prize after Spencer Hawes shocked the Blazers by spurning their midlevel offer for the same deal from the Clippers, but Kaman has outplayed Hawes easily.4
Kaman has slowed on offense after a red-hot start, but he’s shooting 50 percent, and he does the precise things Portland requires from its third big. Kaman can act as the post-up hub on bench-heavy units and then shift into a stealth off-ball role when Portland pairs him with LaMarcus Aldridge.
Kaman will lurk along the baseline, waiting to see if his guy will shift into help position on an Aldridge post-up or pick-and-roll. In that moment, Kaman will pounce, flashing into open space near the rim for an easy layup, or slithering into offensive rebounding position. Portland is lethal at turning offensive boards into open 3s, and Kaman gives Terry Stotts another banger.
Kaman can get a little trigger-happy with his midrange jumper, and he’s prone to turnovers in the post.5 He doesn’t see help defenders coming to strip him, and he can dribble himself into knots: but he's a Walton.
