OT: Lonnie Walker, Updates

[Hal14]

Is it possible the Celtics pulled aside Walker's agent and said, " we are working on this. We WILL find a way to get you signed but you have to be quiet and we can't tell you how."

I highly doubt it.

I mean, I guess it's possible that Brad said something like that to Lonnie and/or his agent.

But there's still no guarantee that Brad would be able to sign Walker. And Walker is losing money every day that the NBA season is going on and he's not on a roster. If Walker was getting offered a contract today by the Knicks or the Heat or the Bucks or the Kings or the Spurs, he would be stupid to turn those contract offers down, for the possibility of *maybe* getting signed at some point by the Celtics, who are the deepest team in the league so even if he signs with Boston, he's just gonna ride the bench.

Not to mention that if Brad and Lonnie did have some type of wink wink agreement in place for Walker to join the Celtics at some point this season, wouldn't it make sense for Walker to be on the Celtics g league roster? But they released the Maine Celtics g league roster today and walker is not on it..

[165bows]

Worth reminding that Lonnie seems like a cool dude and has had a couple big moments but also has been a deeply inefficient scorer his entire career, and some of the defensive metrics shared in here are pretty gnarly.

[Homerclease]

Worth reminding that Lonnie seems like a cool dude and has had a couple big moments but also has been a deeply inefficient scorer his entire career, and some of the defensive metrics shared in here are pretty gnarly.

Derrick White couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn from 3 point land before he came here, look at him now. Everyone thought Al was washed when he went to Philly and stunk up the joint before coming back. Jrue Holiday set career bests in shooting basically across the board in his first year here.

[165bows]

Worth reminding that Lonnie seems like a cool dude and has had a couple big moments but also has been a deeply inefficient scorer his entire career, and some of the defensive metrics shared in here are pretty gnarly.

Derrick White couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn from 3 point land before he came here, look at him now. Everyone thought Al was washed when he went to Philly and stunk up the joint before coming back. Jrue Holiday set career bests in shooting basically across the board in his first year here.

Hey I’m all about it, hope he hits his potential and does it here. Just worth a reminder his career shooting efficiency numbers are def bottom third league wide.

[celtxman]

Is it possible the Celtics pulled aside Walker's agent and said, " we are working on this. We WILL find a way to get you signed but you have to be quiet and we can't tell you how."

I highly doubt it.

I mean, I guess it's possible that Brad said something like that to Lonnie and/or his agent.

But there's still no guarantee that Brad would be able to sign Walker. And Walker is losing money every day that the NBA season is going on and he's not on a roster. If Walker was getting offered a contract today by the Knicks or the Heat or the Bucks or the Kings or the Spurs, he would be stupid to turn those contract offers down, for the possibility of *maybe* getting signed at some point by the Celtics, who are the deepest team in the league so even if he signs with Boston, he's just gonna ride the bench.

I don't think there's really an agreement either. And yes if he gets a guaranteed offer, he's gone, and for him, rightfully so.
Where we part ways is on his PT and it isn't even about quantity of minutes. He's got a special skill. He can sit for 20 game minutes, come in and hit shots. The Pistons game screamed for Walker when they just couldn't score for 5 minutes in the 4th. When the lead was evaporating in the 2nd would be a good spot. 11 minutes 8 points, you never lose the lead. Next game 5 minutes maybe DNP because Hauser comes back.
Svi couldn't do this, Lonnie can. Will Jaylen and Jason be as healthy as last year? I hope so, but I
wouldn't bet on it. So Jaylen goes down for 14 games and Lonnie gets 15 minutes per game, Hauser gets more minutes too. If The J's don't miss much time, fine, Walker doesn't play
Riding the bench is different in Boston, than it is in Charlotte. Walker knows all about the talent on this team and WANTS to be here in this role. There is value in a long season, to have a guy like Walker close out the 4th quarter with all of the starters out and Pritchard is off or looking good WITH Walker.
Like I said. I trust the front office to do the continued best in the NBA job with what they've got. There's likely a lot I don't know.

[zoyathedestroya]

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I still want to know why none of the NBA teams want to sign him?

[phincsfan]

Worth reminding that Lonnie seems like a cool dude and has had a couple big moments but also has been a deeply inefficient scorer his entire career, and some of the defensive metrics shared in here are pretty gnarly.

Derrick White couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn from 3 point land before he came here, look at him now. Everyone thought Al was washed when he went to Philly and stunk up the joint before coming back. Jrue Holiday set career bests in shooting basically across the board in his first year here.

White and Jrue were trade targets, Walker was a bargain basement kick the tire guy. And nobody else in the league wants to kick those tires. White and Walker were with each other for 4 years and look how different their careers went? There's a reason why LA and BK didn't give him a contract. Especially BK. I'm leaning towards that he has an injury concern that just keeps popping up.

[phincsfan]

https://imgur.com/mm4KG3X


Does anybody know how to put this as an avatar? It keeps saying "The URL you specified is invalid"

[Dogen]

https://imgur.com/mm4KG3X

Does anybody know how to put this as an avatar? It keeps saying "The URL you specified is invalid"

You'll need to use this form of the URL link: https://i.imgur.com/mm4KG3X.jpeg

It's listed in one of the options.

[phincsfan]

https://imgur.com/mm4KG3X

Does anybody know how to put this as an avatar? It keeps saying "The URL you specified is invalid"

You'll need to use this form of the URL link: https://i.imgur.com/mm4KG3X.jpeg

It's listed in one of the options.

You are the man

[darrendaye]

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[darrendaye]

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I still want to know why none of the NBA teams want to sign him?

Perhaps?

[GoCeltics123]

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[djFan71]

It's gonna suck when Springer lights us up in the Finals against Real Madrid.

[celtxman]

Worth reminding that Lonnie seems like a cool dude and has had a couple big moments but also has been a deeply inefficient scorer his entire career, and some of the defensive metrics shared in here are pretty gnarly.

I said earlier that I believe the decision with Walker had to do with Jordan Walsh and we really see that with the Bucks game. The Celtics believe in Walsh to be a regular contributor THIS SEASON.
I've said throughout this I trust the Celtics management. How could you not based on tremendous performance? If you show serious interest in Walker at the trade deadline and then bring him into camp you what management thinks about his TS and defensive metrics as the only criteria. As Brad has famously said “Everybody is in the NBA for a reason. They have a special talent. They have a special ability. Sometimes people get put in a box of what they can’t do, instead of focusing on what they can."
Lonnie Walker did exactly what he needed to in preseason. He would have been fine on the Celtics. I believe this was about Walsh stepping up.

[phincsfan]

Worth reminding that Lonnie seems like a cool dude and has had a couple big moments but also has been a deeply inefficient scorer his entire career, and some of the defensive metrics shared in here are pretty gnarly.

I said earlier that I believe the decision with Walker had to do with Jordan Walsh and we really see that with the Bucks game. The Celtics believe in Walsh to be a regular contributor THIS SEASON.
I've said throughout this I trust the Celtics management. How could you not based on tremendous performance? If you show serious interest in Walker at the trade deadline and then bring him into camp you what management thinks about his TS and defensive metrics as the only criteria. As Brad has famously said “Everybody is in the NBA for a reason. They have a special talent. They have a special ability. Sometimes people get put in a box of what they can’t do, instead of focusing on what they can."
Lonnie Walker did exactly what he needed to in preseason. He would have been fine on the Celtics. I believe this was about Walsh stepping up.

And they have a lot more control over Walsh's contract. Kind of the carrot and the horse situation. Walker probably would have had a guaranteed multiyear deal.

[Hal14]

Lonnie Walker did exactly what he needed to in preseason.

He did?

He made some decent passes. The defense was ok. Not great, but not terrible. His scoring was solid. But not his scoring efficiency..42% FG and 31% from 3. 51.8% TS. Those are poor numbers..he also had one of the lower +/- on the team.

Also keep in mind that only a small % of the work he did as a Celtic was made available for public consumption. What I mean is, he played in 4 preseason games. But he played in roughly 12 practices with the team. You add the 4 games + the 12 practices, that's 16 days he participated in basketball activities as a Celtic. But we only saw the 4 preseason games. We have no idea what went on at those 12 (or so) practices, we don't know how well he played, how hard he played, how quickly he was grasping our systems, schemes, etc. whcan can be pretty complex for a new player to learn.

So it's hard to say with such certainty that he did everything he needed to do..

He would have been fine on the Celtics. I believe this was about Walsh stepping up.

Surem Walsh's strong preseason may have factored in a little bit. But I think the bigger factor in Walker getting cut was money. They just didn't want to pay $11 mil (salary + taxes) for an 18th man.

And I say 18th because we already have 14 guys under contract for the standard roster, plus we had 3 2-way spots filled..and those 2-way spots don't count against the cap..they're basically free roster spots and all 3 of our 2-way guys have the potential to possibly contribute for the big club at some point this season.

Sure, you could try and say something like "oh but Lonnie is awesome! He's better than some of our end of bench guys - it's like paying for a 10th man instead of a 18th man"

To which I would say, "well kind of but not really since those other 14 guys are still under guaranteed contracts and the 3 2-way guys are freebie roster spots so at the end of the day, Walker is the guy who makes you go from 17 players to 18 so he would basically be the 18th man"

[hugepatsfan]

I still think there's a decent chance he's signed midseason. Early signs on Springer are concerning. Not being able to get any non garbage time minutes with Hauser out is a major red flag for him. If he continues to be so buried on the depth chart, I don't think they'll keep him past the deadline. Attach a 2nd to his deal and backfill the roster spot with a pro rated minimum signing which would be about $1M. Saves about $3M on salary and the associated tax.

If Walker hasn't signed overseas or with another team, he'd be a prime candidate for that signing. That's his path to signing here, IMO. And if Springer turns a corner or he gets dealt in an actual acquisition trade with someone coming back rather than a salary dump then that path closes up.

[ConstableGeneva]

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[Hal14]

Early signs on Springer are concerning. Not being able to get any non garbage time minutes with Hauser out is a major red flag for him.

That seems a bit hyperbolic.

We have a deep and talented team. Hauser was out for 3 games. In 1 of those games, Mazzulla went with an 8 man rotation. In one of them, he went with more double big lineups and played Queta. And in the other game, Walsh got some mins (sliding in to the role Brissett had last season which is a role that has already been proven to work well).

Plus, we all figured Walsh was ahead of Springer on the depth chart, after the strong preseason that Walsh had.

Playing multiple guards off the bench in the rotation is not something Mazzulla has done - pretty much ever in his 3 seasons as head coach. It's why Pritchard was glued to the bench in the 22-23 season and pretty much only played if 1 of the other guards (white, smart, brogdon) was injured. And last season we just played 3 guards (jrue, white, pritchard) for basically all of the rotation mins.

Mazzulla just has not gone with multiple guards off the bench in the rotation so I don't really take it as a major red flag if Springer doesn't play, when all of our guards are healthy.

If he continues to be so buried on the depth chart, I don't think they'll keep him past the deadline. Attach a 2nd to his deal and backfill the roster spot with a pro rated minimum signing which would be about $1M. Saves about $3M on salary and the associated tax.

If Walker hasn't signed overseas or with another team, he'd be a prime candidate for that signing. That's his path to signing here, IMO. And if Springer turns a corner or he gets dealt in an actual acquisition trade with someone coming back rather than a salary dump then that path closes up.

Never say never, but at this point I'd be pretty surprised if we see Lonnie Walker suit up this season for the Celtics. If there was a chance of it happening, I would have thought he would have been on the Maine Celtics training camp roster. Doing so would have kept the door open for him to join the big club and it would have allowed him to earn that $750K bonus that he would have gotten for spending x amount of days with our G league affiliate.

By saying no to joining the Maine Celtics, to me that is him closing the door on playing for Boston this season. Only reason I can think of for why he would do that is because he has an offer from another team (perhaps an overseas team or perhaps another NBA team) and the deal just has yet to be finalized/announced.