It might not have been the homecoming Walker expected, but he was able to give teams another look at what he can do in this league.
Welcome home Lonnie, everything is on fire.
After being unable to find a home in the NBA after preseason, the Reading, PA native signed overseas where he thought he’d be spending the remainder of the year. About an hour before his escape clause expired, Walker signed with the Sixers.
Three days later, he played nine minutes, missed all three of his shots, and grabbed two rebounds in his debut with the team.
That game ended up being a 105-103 loss to the Brooklyn Nets. A game that saw Joel Embiid get benched for the fourth quarter and a Nic Claxton putback at the buzzer that sank any hope of this team pulling themselves out of this cursed season.
Just five games into his tenure, any chance of Walker playing with the “real” version of this Sixers team was gone, as Paul George and Tyrese Maxey’s seasons also ended early due to nagging injuries.
The majority of Walker’s time here this season was for an organization hoping to lose games, and they were successful in that, going 3-17 in the games in which he appeared. Even he wasn’t safe from the injury bug that bit the team the entire season. He suffered a concussion after taking a hard fall that ended up causing him to miss seven games.
While it didn’t result in many wins, Walker did show production in his re-audition to the league. He averaged 12.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. Those are all slightly above his career averages, except with slightly more usage.
He made 35.4% of his three-pointers, taking 4.3 attempts per game. He had a 53.2% effective field goal percentage, which is only the 43rd percentile across the league, but still one of his highest marks. It wasn’t just the 31 points that tied a career-high for him in the season finale, but he ended on quite a strong note. He averaged 19 points over the last eight games, with a 57% effective field goal percentage.
Something Walker said when he first arrived in Philadelphia was that he wanted to show he could do more than score. That was still his calling card in his time here, but his passing numbers were better.
It’s important to remember this is a 20-game sample size late in the year, but he had a career-high 16.6 assist rate. Perhaps more importantly, his assist to usage rate was also a career-high at 0.78, but again, take it with all the grains of salt for that time of the season.
None of these numbers are earth-shattering, but they affirm Walker belongs on some NBA roster, even if it’s hard to say which one. Ironically, his minutes would have been a lot more helpful than the ones Kyle Lowry and Reggie Jackson were giving while the Sixers were actually still trying to win games.
Ideally, this team is bringing back Quentin Grimes along with Maxey and Jared McCain. Whatever happens with the draft and the rest of the offseason, it’s already a crowded backcourt for Walker to return to.
The team has a $2.9 million club option on him next season, and it’s hard to see them picking that up with the other veterans who have player options (don’t worry we’ll get to them in this series.)
Walker showed he is still able to get buckets at a decent rate in this league, now he just needs a team who needs that from him.
Season Grade: B-
**All stats used are from salaryswish, cleaningtheglass, and basketball reference.