Nickeil Alexander-Walker agreed to a 4yrs, $62 million deal with Atlanta

[HMFFL]

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[HMFFL]

Second round pick and cash to T Wolves.

[Jamaaliver]

IMHO,

Hawks are now the favorite to win the Southeast Division.

Top-3 seed incoming this year:

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[atlantabbq99]

Nice signing but the Hawks still need to get more depth in the post. The dynasty GSW always had three 7 footers on the bench.

[Jamaaliver]

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[Jamaaliver]

Spoiler:

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[BD12]

Chris Boucher would be a good fit for the Hawks

[ChuckChilly]

Too much cash and too many years. But I like what he will bring to the team.

[HMFFL]

Too much cash and too many years. But I like what he will bring to the team.

We had Terance Mann on our books for three more seasons for $16m per year, so this NAW contract is a steal.

[D21]

Sure, he's paid less than Mann, who had a very negative impact on the floor.
And if he doesn't fit, should be easy to find a good trade

[jayu70]

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[Jamaaliver]

Spoiler:

Alexander-Walker leaves as one of the greatest development stories in Timberwolves history. He arrived as a seldom-used bench player in Utah, a combo guard who didn’t seem deft enough to handle the point but wasn’t consistent enough as a shooter to play the two. In reality, his contract was the biggest reason he was included in the deal, since he made enough money to help the Timberwolves, Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers pull off a three-team trade that sent D’Angelo Russell to the Lakers and got the Wolves the point guard they needed in Conley.

Bouncing around from New Orleans to Portland to Utah and, finally, to Minnesota humbled him to the point that when he reunited with Finch he was willing to do anything it took to carve out a place for himself in the league. What everyone settled on was for Alexander-Walker to become a defensive demon...

With no ego or pretense, NAW threw himself into the role. He embraced the label of defensive stopper, eschewing any designs on being the big-time scorer that he thought he was capable of being when he was drafted out of Virginia Tech. He hounded ballhandlers on the perimeter, the tip of the spear on a Wolves defense that was dominant in 2023-24 and still excellent last season.

He also hit 39 percent of his 3s in 2023-24 and 38 percent last season, making him the quintessential 3-and-D guy for a team that made the conference finals in each of the last two seasons.

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[jayu70]

Ambidextrous- uses his left on drives and finishing at the rim and passing...spot up shooting with right hand.

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Nickeil Alexander-Walker has a weird skill that's rare in the NBA

“At a young age, my uncle always said, ‘If you can do (something) with your right hand, you should be able to do it with your left.'"

A knowledgeable NBA fan knows the basics of prominent role players — they know Alexander-Walker is a quality defender, hits his open threes, and can handle the ball when called upon. But only when you watch a role player game after game do you pick up on their smallest tendencies, the little quirks in their game that make them unique.

For NAW, it's the fact that he's one of the most ambidextrous players in the NBA. 

He must have taken that quote from his uncle to heart because it's rare to see a player who's this good at passing with his left hand despite being a right-handed shooter. 

Every time he slithers to the left side of the court, he's looking to whip a one-handed lefty skip pass across the defense to find a teammate in the opposite corner. The precision and velocity on all his lefty skip passes is impressive to the degree that you nearly forget he's doing it all with his weak hand.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/minnesota-timberwolves/news/nickeil-alexander-walker-naw-nba-playoffs-wolves/11aeabab2b7dc2aea4fb8092

[jayu70]

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[Jamaaliver]

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[atlantabbq99]

With it all said and done, it was basically a swap for.......

De'Andre Hunter at $23m a year for Nickeil Alexander-Walker at $15m a year.

Hunter is a better player but with major injury issues. NAW isn't as good as Hunter but he is solid and with no injury issues and can give u a solid 70-80 games a year.

[Sealab2024]

So here's the nuts and bolts of it from a wolves fan. NAW is like 99th percentile at getting through screens. No idea how he does it, but he does... Consistently. What this means is if you put Nickeil on a primary ball handler their switch hunting ends because the defense isn't forced to switch, NAW just stays with his guy. This basically destroys the offensive game plan of like 95% of the league. They either have to work one on one with straight up match ups or defer to a secondary ball handler.

Now getting through screens is not for the feint of heart. It's all elbows to the ribs and knees to the thighs so it's tough to ask a guy to do that for 38 minutes a night, but it's a hell of a weapon to have in the arsenal. That he can definitely do things on offense is generally all gravy in the grand scheme of things because having NAW is really about causing absolute chaos on the defensive end.

[Jamaaliver]

So here's the nuts and bolts of it from a wolves fan. NAW is like 99th percentile at getting through screens. No idea how he does it, but he does... Consistently. What this means is if you put Nickeil on a primary ball handler their switch hunting ends because the defense isn't forced to switch, NAW just stays with his guy. This basically destroys the offensive game plan of like 95% of the league. They either have to work one on one with straight up match ups or defer to a secondary ball handler.

Now getting through screens is not for the feint of heart. It's all elbows to the ribs and knees to the thighs so it's tough to ask a guy to do that for 38 minutes a night, but it's a hell of a weapon to have in the arsenal. That he can definitely do things on offense is generally all gravy in the grand scheme of things because having NAW is really about causing absolute chaos on the defensive end.

This is great stuff, brother!!

Feel free to stop by with more analysis throughout the season.

[jayu70]

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[jayu70]

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