Give up at the age of 26? Lonnie Walker s dilemma!

Lonnie Walker, for this 2018 first round No. 18 pick, his NBA career is coming to an end for the time being.

According to the latest reports, Lonnie Walker is about to join the Israeli giants Tel Aviv Maccabi, signing a three-year contract of 10 million euros, becoming one of the most expensive signings in the history of this giants, and becoming one of the highest-paid players in Europe.

According to European media reports, this contract contains multiple NBA job-changing clauses. During the offseason for three consecutive years, if an NBA team proposes signing intentions, Walker can decide whether to jump out of the contract within a week. This special contract design retains the possibility of his return to the NBA to the greatest extent.

It is worth mentioning that this is not the first time Walker has been to the European League. In the 2024 offseason, Walker did not get any NBA contracts in the free market, only one Celtics' 10-day short contract, but was limited by poor performance in the preseason. He finally chose to join the Lithuanian team, averaging 13.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. Relying on outstanding performance, the Philadelphia 76ers chose to buy him out in the middle of the season, offering a two-year contract and the second-year team option. In 20 games with the Sixers, he averaged 23.9 minutes per game, handing in 12.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists.

First of all, I would like to sigh that the free market in 2025 is indeed quite strict. A player who averages double scores per game and is only 26 years old doesn't even have a basic salary contract, and this embarrassing situation does not only happen to Walker. But referring to Walker's current situation, although the result of no one's interest is shocking, it is not too surprising.

As a Neuro Knife Score player, Spurs fans should be the most familiar with Walker. As the Spurs selected the 18th pick in the first round of 2018, they were also the Spurs' highest draft pick in many years, so the team spent four years cultivating him and was not officially abandoned until the end of the rookie contract.

Coming to the 2022 offseason, after the rookie contract ended, Walker chose to leave the Spurs and signed a mini middle-class contract with the Lakers. As one of the important reinforcements for the Lakers' offseason that year, Walker also received a lot of attention. Objectively speaking, Walker's performance in the 2022-23 season is quite remarkable, averaging 23.2 minutes per game, contributing 11.7 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists, shooting percentage of 44.8%, three-point shooting percentage of 36.5%, free throw shooting percentage of 85.8%, and the real shooting percentage is 57.0%. It is the type of person who can contribute stably as long as he has the ball and playing time.

However, during the playoffs, Walker's playing time was reduced to 13.8 minutes, but he still averaged 6.2 points, a three-point shooting percentage of 38.2%, and a real shooting percentage of 61.3%.

Especially in the second round of the series against the Warriors, Walker's performance was particularly impressive. He scored in double digits in four of the five games. In the fourth game, Walker stood up from the bench and scored 15 points in a single quarter in the fourth quarter, helping the Lakers to lead 3-1, and also became a classic scene in the Lakers' playoffs that year.

Although the Lakers were finally swept out by the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals that year, Walker gained a lot of recognition based on his outstanding performance in the second round. At that time, it was generally believed that the possibility of him getting another mini middle class contract was still very high. But unexpectedly, he ended up only receiving a basic salary contract from the Nets.

In the 2023-24 season, Walker played for the Nets, playing 58 games during this period, all of whom came on the bench, averaging 17.4 minutes per game, handed in 9.7 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists, and shot 42.3% from the field. Judging from the data, Walker scored his best three-point performance this season, averaging 1.8 three-pointers per game, with a shooting percentage of 38.4%, but even so, it is still not enough to allow him to obtain a guaranteed contract in the free market of that year. The reason why

has experienced such embarrassing situations for many years is mainly related to Walker's style of play.

As a scorer player, Walker's team role is quite clear, has a wide range of shooting range, and has excellent independent shooting ability. He has three seasons in his career and nearly 40% of his three-point shooting percentage and more than 40% in one season. The problem is that his stability and scoring efficiency are not high, and his offensive choices are poor under high pressure defense. Another point is that it is very easy to lose focus on the game after the defense time is extended, and even become a team gap in the team's defense line.

In contrast, this type of player is the most difficult to find a suitable route to use. The most suitable position is to make a substitute to break up, but its overall impact on the team is often not worthy of being treated with focus.

Take the 2022-23 season as an example. During his time with the Lakers, although Walker's personal data was impressive, his actual impact on the court was not ideal:

When Walker was on the court, the Lakers scored 108.8 points per 100 rounds, with a net loss of 7.3 points;

When Walker was not on the court, the Lakers scored 114.9 points per 100 rounds, with a net defeat to the opponent by 4.2 points.

There is another important point. Whether in the free market or the trading market, the current environment is not very friendly to such shooting guards, or substitute scorers who require ball rights.

Taking 2025 as an example, even Danny Angie, who was as smart as he was unable to trade Clarkson, and he had to choose to buy out; Sexton even took advantage of a second-round draft pick to finally handle it successfully.

If you look at personal abilities alone, Walker does have a level that exceeds the base salary player, but sometimes the contract amount and the player's personal abilities are not completely equal, and the environmental factors of different teams are different. Judging from the market environment in the past two years, it is not difficult to understand that Walker can't find another home. After all, there are too many young talents in the backcourt in recent years..

Then the question arises, can Walker return to the NBA?

Personal people still have a chance, but it is really difficult.

First, there is currently no shortage of this type of substitute scoring guards in the market. On the current free agent list, such as Malik Beasley, Cameron Thomas, and Grimes, all belong to this type, and even Westbrook and Simmons who can guarantee the lower limit of defense have not yet been left.

Another thing is, although the contract signed by Walker and European teams include the NBA buyout clause, the time limit is too strict. This year's offseason is basically coming to an end, and there will be only half a month's operation time next year and the summer after. If you want to jump out of the contract midway, unless an NBA team is willing to pay for it, just like the Sixers last year, it will be extremely difficult for Walker to return to the NBA.

It can only be said that the NBA is indeed cruel. Although many superstars have been signing annual salary contracts of tens of millions in recent years, there are still many players who have performed well. Even in their year of playing, they can't even get a basic salary.

It is worth mentioning that any head coach who has coached Walker has praised his attitude towards the game many times, and even trained alone in the middle of the night in order to win the guarantee contract. As Mazura said:

I like his work ethics, I like his attitude towards the game.

I can only say that I hope there will be a chance to see Lonnie Walker again in the NBA in the future.