San Antonio Spurs: The NBA’s most overlooked young core

Lonnie Walker IV

Slowly but surely, Lonnie Walker IV has shown glimpses of a serious scoring threat, and he’s looking to prove himself as the opportunities arise.

While he still has tons of growth, the second-year guard is making the waves with his slick athleticism and slashing ability, which has impressed coach, Gregg Popovich. A pure offensive threat, Walker has arguably the highest potential on this team to break out into a game-changer.

Walker is the product of superb development by the Spurs, who have sent him to the G-League at the perfect times, and have slowly eased him into a starting role in big moments. Walker has taken every starting opportunity and ran with it, showing how great of a player he can truly be. Walker is already looking like what former Milwaukee Bucks guard O.J. Mayo was supposed to be.

Walker certainly isn’t a perfect player. Consistency is his main problem, as he struggles to efficiently put up solid games over a long period of time. It’s a given though, consistency is something most young players struggle with, and Walker is in that boat. Obviously, it’s something the Spurs are quickly looking to fix before he starts getting more opportunities.

But one side of Walker’s playstyle that we haven’t touched on yet, is his developing defense. While the Spurs are one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA, Walker has strived to work on his perimeter defense and it shows. Walker’s 108.2 defensive rating is the best on the roster and he’s shown he can face up against the best scorers in the NBA.

In his matchup against the Houston Rockets, Walker kept James Harden to 11-of-37 shooting, and hit just four of his 20 3-pointers. Lonnie Walker led the Spurs to a win with a 28-point game. While Harden scored 50, a common occurrence for him, Walker kept him to a poor shooting percentage.

Lonnie Walker is a developing threat, who’ll be given an upload of minutes next season, with the potential of improving beyond what most fans expect.