The Good: Breakout time for Lonnie Walker IV
San Antonio fans have had the name Lonnie Walker on their mind for the last year or so now, with the third-year guard making significant improvements in his game over his first two years with the team. However, the national media has largely ignored Walker, especially since they spent a large amount of their Spurs coverage on Dejounte Murray, who had a breakout season of his own last year.
If tonight is any indication, that won’t be the case for long.
For starters, Walker had not one, but two highlight-reel dunks. And as we all know, there’s nothing more enticing to the national media than a good dunk.
https://twitter.com/spurs/status/1341932651968606212
And what’s more, Walker had a stellar performance against the Grizzlies. He recorded 16 points, six rebounds, two assists, and one steal and one block while shooting 66.6 percent from the field and 75.0 percent from 3-point range.
Walker improved tremendously in his second year with the Spurs, bumping his points average up by almost two, his rebounds by 1.3, and going from a 35/38/80 shooter to a 42/40/72 shooter.
If he can continue improving at that rate, Walker could be an incredibly important piece to the Spurs down the line. Although DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge are all-star level talents, they have trouble completing shots from deep, and can’t space the floor as well as some of the upper-level talent in the NBA can. While it’s unlikely that Walker will ever be seen as a top-5 or even top-10 guy in the league, his accuracy from long range makes him a threat, and he could prove valuable as San Antonio rebuilds into a more modern-style team.
And, though it’s the least important point, it’s still worth mentioning that Walker is a very marketable player. Someone who can jump out of the building on any given day, he could provide the Spurs with a lot of highlights this season, and it’s not unreasonable to assume that we will see him in many of the dunk contests and 3-point contests in the future.