San Antonio Spurs: Lonnie Walker is taking on the starting floor-spacer role

When the shooting sensation Bryn Forbes left the San Antonio Spurs during the last offseason there were questions. Lonnie Walker appears to be the answer.

The San Antonio Spurs had more questions than answers thanks to their offseason roster moves. Did the re-signing of Jakob Poeltl mean he was going to start? Did the contract extension for Derrick White mean that he was going to replace Bryn Forbes?

Well, White has been out due to toe surgery so the Spurs’ brains trust has had to look deeper into the bench. They chose to put Lonnie Walker into the starting lineup alongside Keldon Johnson, DeMar DeRozan, and Dejounte Murray.

The four-guard rotation is proving to be hard to guard, particularly as LaMarcus Aldridge is a reasonably mobile stretch-big. In the small sample size of three games, the Spurs are 2-1 with the most recent loss against the New Orleans Pelicans.

How Lonnie Walker is helping the San Antonio Spurs.

The Spurs are benefitting in a number of ways from Lonnie Walker. He is combining his incredible athleticism with some sweet shooting to average 15.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.7 blocks, and 0.3 steals in 31.0 minutes per game.

What has been even more impressive has been his early-season efficiency. Yes, three games is a small sample size but his slash line is superb. Walker is shooting the ball at .486/.476/.500 which, apart from the free throw percentage, is incredible.

Walker has also increased his volume from behind the arc from 1.7 attempts per game last season to 6.3 per game this season. Normally when a player increases their attempts so much their percentage goes down. Walker has gone from shooting .406 last season to .476 this season.

As stated earlier, three games are a small sample size, so his shooting percentages will probably regress towards a more normal percentage. However, there is the chance that Walker could continue to shoot at a good clip for the rest of the season.

Murray’s early season form is going to give the Spurs a very nice problem when Derrick White returns from rehabbing his toe injury. He has been the preferred starter when either Dejounte Murray or Bryn Forbes were out any time in the last two seasons.

How would you bench Walker when his numbers are currently better than anything Forbes produced as a starter? The problem is that the Spurs just invested in White to the tune of four years/$73 million and you don’t pay that to a bench player if you are a successful franchise.

White can come in and replace Johnson but he is also plying out of his skin at the moment. Johnson has kept his bubble momentum going and the Spurs are benefitting from it. It is going to be interesting to see what the Spurs do when White returns

At the moment the White contract can be seen as a bit of a safety net in case DeRozan decides to leave the team next season. In order to keep him, they need to keep winning this season and then commit a large part of the cap to him for the next three years.

however, all of this is a concern for a future date. The Spurs have been surprising to start the season and Walker has been a large part of this. If he keeps this production up he will be in line for Most Improved Player but that is another article for another time.