Los Angeles Lakers: Early returns for Lonnie Walker have been promising

The decision to sign free agent guard Lonnie Walker was a risky one for the Los Angeles Lakers. While signing a player to a one-year, $5 million deal doesn’t seem like a bold move, Walker, despite his obvious talent, washed out of his previous stop in San Antonio. He was drafted 18th overall in the 2018 NBA draft and spent four seasons with the Spurs, but never quite lived up to his full potential, even though the Spurs are known for their developmental staff.

In fact, after trading away All-Star Dejounte Murray, the Spurs were in desperate need of scoring and playmaking, something that Walker can provide, but instead, they opted to make him an unrestricted free agent. That paved the way for the Lakers to sign him, and thus far, that’s worked out surprisingly well for the Lakers.

Lonnie Walker is giving the Los Angeles Lakers an offensive boost.

Through 10 games, Walker is averaging a career-high 15.3 points per game and is the team’s third-leading scorer, giving them an unexpected offensive boost. This comes as Russell Westbrook has seemingly accepted a bench role and is excelling in it, helping to boost the Lakers’ bench. Meanwhile, Walker is helping LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the starting lineup.

It’s an unorthodox strategy, but it’s actually working and has helped to offset Westbrook’s drop in scoring. It’s also made Walker somewhat indispensable to the Lakers, even though they are still reportedly considering making a trade to add more shooting and have limited options for players to use as salary-cap fillers. He can’t be traded without his permission either—not that the Lakers would want to at this point.

Walker ranks among the best athletes in the NBA, and he can use that explosiveness to aggressively attack closeouts and streak out in the fast break.

He’s also an underrated playmaker who can create for himself and others in the pick-and-roll but has a tendency to settle for contested mid-range jumpers.

He’s doing less of that with the Lakers, which should eventually help his efficiency once his 3-point shooting regresses back to the mean. Walker struggled to hit from outside to start the season, him and just about every other Laker, but he’s a better shooter than he’s shown thus far. He may not be the knockdown shooter that the Lakers need, but he’s a career 34% 3-point shooter who’s currently hitting below 30%.

Once his shots start falling, Walker should be even better offensively, and for a team that’s ranked last in 3-point percentage and last in offensive efficiency, that would be a welcome development. He’s even made strides on the defensive end after being frustratingly inconsistent as a member of the Spurs.

Overall, the gamble the Los Angeles Lakers took by signing Walker appears to be paying off at the moment. It remains to be seen how it will ultimately play out, but the results have certainly been encouraging thus far.