OT: Lonnie Walker, Updates

[ConstableGeneva]

The big man equivalent of Lonnie is someone like Thomas Bryant or Christian Wood and those guys are overhyped and don't impact the game (positively) as much as people think. Would rather have defensive-minded bigs since scoring comes easy elsewhere on the team.

Lonnie last season was 100x better than those two be serious

He’s an 82 game guy but he was legit good last year for Brooklyn

All offense, no defense. You know the archetype. Bryant was getting hyped prior to last season. Same with Wood.

It's not a knock on Lonnie. There's a place in the league for his game (see Jordan Clarkson). I just don't want all offense, no defense types for my bigs.

[snowman]

I don't think he is competition for Pritchard at all. Now Springer, Walsh and Scheierman are another story. Walsh had a bad summer league, but Springer rocked the summer league. Scheierman is just a rookie and never played a game in the NBA, so he gets a pass right now. Walsh and Springe are just 20 and 21 so they both are still learning, but Springer has played over 100 games in the NBA, so he should have an advantage. Walker should be signed to the 15th roster spot for the minimum for bench scoring. FYI, Walker can't be signed to a 2-way contract. He either gets the 15th spot or to the G-League as an affiliate player.

I find it funny that reporters like Shams Charania don't have a clue about some of the rules. He said the Celtics could sign Walker as 2-way player, but he's been in the league for 6 years and can't be signed as a 2-way.

[djFan71]

E10 is great. Gonna be hard for him to get any minutes if he even makes 15, though. Perfect possible depth deal at this point, with no commitment.

[Higgs Boston]

Good signing.

It's guaranteed or E10? it would be weird that walker had to accept an E10.

[Parliament10]

I don't think he is competition for Pritchard at all. Now Springer, Walsh and Scheierman are another story. Walsh had a bad summer league, but Springer rocked the summer league. Scheierman is just a rookie and never played a game in the NBA, so he gets a pass right now. Walsh and Springe are just 20 and 21 so they both are still learning, but Springer has played over 100 games in the NBA, so he should have an advantage. Walker should be signed to the 15th roster spot for the minimum for bench scoring. FYI, Walker can't be signed to a 2-way contract. He either gets the 15th spot or to the G-League as an affiliate player.

I find it funny that reporters like Shams Charania don't have a clue about some of the rules. He said the Celtics could sign Walker as 2-way player, but he's been in the league for 6 years and can't be signed as a 2-way.

Yeah. Agreed. I don't think that he can Sign a Two-Way this year. (Even with missed time.)

[cl2117]

Wow, Brad Stevens surprising me once again. Love this guy as GM.

Too funny that Lonnie was regularly ignored as a 15th man candidate because nobody thought he'd take a deal like this. I certainly never thought he'd be signing an E10. Really can't go wrong with this from C's perspective.

Only possible downside is that he could get in the way of some developmental opportunities for the younger guys but I think post Summer League both Baylor and Walsh looked like they were destined for Maine anyway. Springer is the guy who is going to feel the pressure the most with Lonnie's addition, but I actually think this is a good litmus test for him. Lonnie Walker is the bar, you need to show Joe enough that he can see the value in trying to develop you over just handing Lonnie, who has already established a clear NBA floor, those minutes.

I don't see Pritchard being impacted by this at all really. He's carved out his role, I would be really surprised if Walker player well enough to leech some of those minutes away.

Love love love this. Even if it doesn't work out and he ends up elsewhere, the fact that our FO was able to get a player like him to sign on for an E10 and we seem willing to foot the bill if things work out is massively encouraging. What an amazing offseason. Bringing basically the whole band back, on team friendly deals, with some youth/wildcards added in as well. 10/10, no notes.

[Triple7]

Good one. Really good shooter with ball handling. An injury insurance. Not sure with his mins, as we are loaded with wings. Would have wanted an additional big

[ConstableGeneva]

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[ConstableGeneva]

Prior Walkers Kemba and Antoine both wore #8. Too bad Porzingis is using it now. Toine also used #88, now being worn by Queta. #28 is available. And #12 was vacated by Oshae.

[Homerclease]

We just need Brad to figure out how to combine Lonnie Walker and Jaden Springer into one stand alone player. Teach them the fusion dance or something.

[brackdan70]

I was really surprised by this. Seems like a good and fine pick up. Never hurts to have a good shooter with playoff experience.
I was also surprised he hasn’t been picked up.
Dude is only 26. I thought he was over 30 for some reason, seems he has been around awhile.
Another good move from Mr. Stevens.

[shackles10]

Great signing this late in free agency. You gotta believe he knows he’s not guaranteed minutes but is willing to work hard to earn them so no real downside to the signing. He’s super shifty and will definitely have some oooh and aaah moments off the dribble. He’s also got some tunnel vision so will have some oooh and ewww moments too. He’s also got a knack for end of quarter shots much like Pritchard. Those two taking turns demoralizing teams at the end of quarters should be fun.

[hickfromfrenchlick]

White and Walker played 148 games together (142 RS, 6 PO) with the Spurs.

Wouldn't be surprised if that played a huge role in Brad Stevens taking a chance on him. I'm sure he talked to DWhite.

I don't think we're the ones taking a chance.

The entire league is furious that the Celtics signed a solid rotation player for a song.

[Hal14]

Awesome pickup! This is the guy I wanted, but thought we had no chance in hell of signing him.

He's good enough to be our 6th or 7th man. He would start on some teams.

So you think he'll earn minutes over Hauser or Pritchard?

Yes. He’s more well-rounded than both.

More well rounded? All Lonnie does is shoot the ball, but he's below league average from 3 for his career. And way below league average for his career in terms of TS%.

Look, I like the signing. Basically zero risk (since it's just an exhibit 10 deal). But pretty high potential reward.

And I have said a few times on here that really the only thing this team is lacking in is the fact that everyone on the bench pretty much either has physical limitations..Hauser (lacking strength, quickness, athleticism), Pritchard (lacking size and athleticism), Kornet (lacking strength, quickness, athleticism), Horford (lacking in athleticism), Scheierman (lacking quickness and athleticism) or has shooting limitations (Kornet, Queta, Springer, Walsh, Tillman) and pretty much all of those guys are lacking when it comes to the ability to create their own shot so often times when our bench unit is on the floor, it seems like the offense is lacking in shot creation ability and also often times lacking in speed/strength/athleticism.

Lonnie can potentially help fill that gap with his combination of shooting/shot creation/athleticism/quickness. It's literally the only thing this squad was missing. And we got him on an exhibit 10..and he's just 25 yrs old. So it's a great signing.

But I think some folks are overhyping Lonnie. It's just not a super valuable archetype - the bench scorer who does nothing else but score but doesn't score efficiently and doesn't have great size..and doesn't pass so can be a hindrance to ball movement.

[Hal14]

I don't think we're the ones taking a chance.

The entire league is furious that the Celtics signed a solid rotation player for a song.

Every other team could have signed him but they chose not to. I don't think they;'re furious.

I think the only ones furious are *fans* of other teams who think Walker is better than he is, due to fancy highlights, PPG and good 3 FG% last season.

[phincsfan]

Great signing this late in free agency. You gotta believe he knows he’s not guaranteed minutes but is willing to work hard to earn them so no real downside to the signing. He’s super shifty and will definitely have some oooh and aaah moments off the dribble. He’s also got some tunnel vision so will have some oooh and ewww moments too. He’s also got a knack for end of quarter shots much like Pritchard. Those two taking turns demoralizing teams at the end of quarters should be fun.

Agreed 100%. I can't see how this doesn't work out for the team. Kudo's, hats off, props to Brad.

Everytime I saw his name come up in comments I was "never gonna happen because what's in it for him?". Man am I eating crow now.

IMO, there is zero comparison with Oshae, Svi or whoever else was on the end of the bench. He practically started more games in 22'/23' than Oshae did in his entire career.

With Zingis out till the halfway point, points will be needed to come from someplace. IMO, PP and Sam are 10ppg career guys. JT can be a 30ppg and JB can be a 27ppg. Jrue and White can inch up but that will come with a price minutes wise. And that's a problem for the long term of the season.

I'm on the Springer band wagon, but I can see them making this deal thinking about offense for the 2nd unit. If Walker gives his averages and Springer gives a little better than his averages, you move on from Springer and lock up Walker after this season. Unless they have a deal in place already. HE'LL BE 26!!! Young with lots of experience and he has played 4 meaningful years under Pop alongside D White.

A 2nd unit of PP, Sam and Walker giving you 25 to 30ppg a night? Remember when Posey, Perk, Eddie and Tony gave them 27ppg playing over 75 games each? Just rebound the ball Luke, XMan and Neem and the other 3 will score.

Whatever it takes to keep guys fresh for the last qtr of the season push and the playoffs I'm all in.

This also puts less pressure on Rico. As much as I want to see him play, let him develop and pop in sometimes during the season. Watson's the guy I hope gets time with the big team.

Kudo's, hats off and Props to Stevens.

[shackles10]

Great signing this late in free agency. You gotta believe he knows he’s not guaranteed minutes but is willing to work hard to earn them so no real downside to the signing. He’s super shifty and will definitely have some oooh and aaah moments off the dribble. He’s also got some tunnel vision so will have some oooh and ewww moments too. He’s also got a knack for end of quarter shots much like Pritchard. Those two taking turns demoralizing teams at the end of quarters should be fun.

Agreed 100%. I can't see how this doesn't work out for the team. Kudo's, hats off, props to Brad.

Everytime I saw his name come up in comments I was "never gonna happen because what's in it for him?". Man am I eating crow now.

IMO, there is zero comparison with Oshae, Svi or whoever else was on the end of the bench. He practically started more games in 22'/23' than Oshae did in his entire career.

With Zingis out till the halfway point, points will be needed to come from someplace. IMO, PP and Sam are 10ppg career guys. JT can be a 30ppg and JB can be a 27ppg. Jrue and White can inch up but that will come with a price minutes wise. And that's a problem for the long term of the season.

I'm on the Springer band wagon, but I can see them making this deal thinking about offense for the 2nd unit. If Walker gives his averages and Springer gives a little better than his averages, you move on from Springer and lock up Walker after this season. Unless they have a deal in place already. HE'LL BE 26!!! Young with lots of experience and he has played 4 meaningful years under Pop alongside D White.

A 2nd unit of PP, Sam and Walker giving you 25 to 30ppg a night? Remember when Posey, Perk, Eddie and Tony gave them 27ppg playing over 75 games each? Just rebound the ball Luke, XMan and Neem and the other 3 will score.

Whatever it takes to keep guys fresh for the last qtr of the season push and the playoffs I'm all in.

This also puts less pressure on Rico. As much as I want to see him play, let him develop and pop in sometimes during the season. Watson's the guy I hope gets time with the big team.

Kudo's, hats off and Props to Stevens.

I mean in fairness Lonnie Walker is a 10ppg-ish guy for his career too. Definitely he's more of a "scorer", but also not nearly as efficient. I definitely like the signing, and for 15th guy vet min with little minutes to offer I think this is best case scenario for the Celtics for sure, but like most guys in that position he's going to have games where we'll be frustrated with him and feel like he's shooting us out of the game too. I'm going to try my best to avoid that mindset and be more relaxed and positive during games since we recently won a title (try is the key word here lol). Basically he's a guy whose highlights look amazing, like you wonder why he's not given more opportunities, but if there were a clip of his lowlights they'd be pretty terrible too. If he can be a poor man's version of Rozier I'll happily take it, warts and all.

[hugepatsfan]

Really nice move for what it is. We're talking last open roster spot, minimal salary, late in the offseason, etc. That's the grading scale we're on. I do think he's generally overrated by fans/social media because he's got a flashy playoff run and some nice pedigree. I'd pump the brakes at penciling him into a role or assuming he displaces anyone. I'd be surprised if this is an overly impactful signing.

That being said, he's shown some real flashes of being a decent player. This is his second year in a row signing for the minimum so barring some huge breakout (that seems unlikely in this rotation) it's probably fair to think that will be his market again next year. If he comes in and take to the team culture well, buys in to playing defense, etc. then I definitely see the possibility that he could stick here.

For this year, I think Springer is the guy most affected. He kind of had the inside track to being the first guy called on in the backcourt/on the wing if any of Tatum/Brown/White/Holiday/Hauser/Pritchard were out. He looked far ahead of Walsh and Scheierman is just a rookie. Now, Walker would figure to be ahead of him based on their careers so far so Springer will need to ratchet up his development. And if he doesn't, not only will it cost him playing time but might also mean the team dumps his salary mid-season to save a pretty serious amount of money (I think dumping his salary mid year would save like $20M of tax payments).

Pritchard played really well last year but he's not invincible. He's a more efficient shooter, better playmaker, and better defender than Walker is. But if Walker's efficiency bumps up in this system and his defense improves with more buy-in from him on that end, then he could push for Pritchard's spot. Having someone 6'4" vs. 6'1" in that spot has its inherent advantages. And longer term, the tax for this team will get expensive. If Walker plays well and buys in here but his market still is stuck at or around the minimum, then it might be economical to keep Walker in that type of role and move Pritchard for savings.

[Green89]

I was really surprised by this. Seems like a good and fine pick up. Never hurts to have a good shooter with playoff experience.
I was also surprised he hasn’t been picked up.
Dude is only 26. I thought he was over 30 for some reason, seems he has been around awhile.
Another good move from Mr. Stevens.

He's still 25 and doesn't turn 26 for four more months.

[hickfromfrenchlick]

I don't think we're the ones taking a chance.

The entire league is furious that the Celtics signed a solid rotation player for a song.

Every other team could have signed him but they chose not to. I don't think they;'re furious.

I think the only ones furious are *fans* of other teams who think Walker is better than he is, due to fancy highlights, PPG and good 3 FG% last season.

Gotta say, after seeing you talk up literally everybody the Celtics have had interest in, I'm a bit surprised to see that Lonnie Walker IV is the guy you finally chose to crap on.

This is a great signing. No downside.