He has found a different role with all of LA’s new deadline additions.
Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Lonnie Walker IV was a starter all season.
That is, at least, until an injury knocked him out of the team’s rotation entirely for a few weeks. When he came back, he found himself coming off the bench, though yours truly expected that the demotion was temporary — until LA team vice president of basketball operations proved to be surprisingly proactive at the trade deadline, adding several new faces to shore up the club’s depth.
New guards D’Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley are both better fits to start next to star Lakers LeBron James and Anthony Davis, thanks to their robust three-point shooting.
In his three games since the trade deadline, Walker has posted modest averages of 5.3 points on 40% shooting the field and one rebound, in just 10.8 minutes per. That’s a stark decline from his season splits of 13.2 points (a career best) on .454/.368/.885 shooting, 2.1 rebounds and 1.3 dimes. He’s also converting a career-best true shooting percentage of 57.5%.
Given Walker’s reduced post-deadline role, it is perhaps little surprise that national pundits speculate he could be on the move this summer, when the 6’4″ vet becomes an unrestricted free agent once again.
Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report believes that Walker will depart the club for greener pastures and more minutes in the 2023 offseason. Hughes does not think that LA will be able to sign Walker into cap space with his Non-Bird Rights.
The club could maximally ink him to a four-year, $33.4 million contract, were it signing him while over the salary cap. Hughes believes the 24-year-old will fetch more on the open market. Time will tell, but it does appear that he is no longer nearly as essential to LA as he was prior to these deadline deals.
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