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2024 Free Agents - Lonnie Walker IV

Summary
Walker is an athletic wing that has shown flashes of good play, but overall hasn't proven that he can be a solid starter. His athleticism makes him a threat in transition, but he hasn't been able to use his tools to become a good defender yet. He's a little undersized at small forward, and I think he has a better chance of staying in front of shooting guards on defense rather than trying to hold is own against stronger forwards. He doesn't get steals or rebound at a high rate.

Offensively, Walker has shown some ability to score, but that's about it. At just under 36% from three for his career, he's a slightly below-average outside shooter. Walker has developed his pull-up jumper game, but still isn't quite at the level where you want him taking a lot of those. He takes a good amount of midrange jumpers but doesn't hit them at a very good rate, and despite being athletic he's not a great finisher at the rim.

Walker will be 25 years old when he hits free agency in 2024, so he's no longer a young prospect. 
 
Cap Considerations
Walker will be an unrestricted free agent with a $2.1 million cap hold and Non-Bird Rights. This means that the highest starting salary the Nets could offer him using the Non-Bird Exception is $3.2 million. This should be enough to retain Walker, since he settled for the minimum to come to Brooklyn. If it's not, the Nets could use cap space or the Room MLE (if operating under the cap) or their MLE or BAE (if operating over the cap) to offer him more than $3.2 million.

Other teams will have multiple ways to sign Walker as even teams without cap space could use the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, or possibly even the Taxpayer MLE or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. It's also possible that Walker only gets minimum offers again.

Potential Teams: Nets, Kings, Timberwolves, Bulls, 76ers

Predicted Contract: 2-year, $6.4 million (2nd year player option) with the Nets

Actual Contract: 1-year, $2.6 million (non-guaranteed) with the Celtics

Walker signed a training camp deal with Boston, and it will be interesting to see if he can make the final roster and get any real minutes minutes.

Last updated: 8/28/2024

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