Lonnie Walker, SG – Miami
Lonnie Walker is an interesting freshman prospect. He comes in at 6’4″, 206lbs. He has a ton of talent and is starting to put it together as the NCAA season goes on. He was highly touted coming out of high school and is slowly starting to play like many expected he could.
In his 24 games for the Hurricanes, he’s scoring 11.3 points on 41.9% shooting. These 11.3 points include 35.1% from deep. However, as Sports Illustrated talked about in their recent coverage of Walker on February 5th, he’s shooting better recently on more attempts.
"Walker has knocked down 36.3% of his 102 attempts from deep this season, but he’s converting at a much higher clip over his last six games (44.4% on 7.5 attempts per game), and his improved shooting at the free throw line during ACC play (82.8%, though on only 29 attempts) bodes well for his development into a floor spacer at the next level."
If he can continue to shoot like that in the NBA, Walker will be commodity. Combined with his length and athleticism, he could be a real scoring threat at the next level. You can see his 26 point scoring outburst against Boston College in the video below.
Draft Express cites his strengths:
"-Has outstanding physical tools. Big, strong frame. Ample height for a shooting guard. Big wingspan that should allow him to even guard some small forwards. -Good athlete. Strong first step. Good quickness. -Good with the ball. Creative and strong. Finishes acrobatically using both sides of the rim. Can power through contact with his strong frame"
Sounds great, right? With both Avery Bradley and Austin Rivers possibly hitting the free agency market in the summer, the Los Angeles Clippers could use another wing. The team did take Jawun Evans and Sindarius Thornwell in this year’s draft, but neither shows the offensive potential that Walker does.
There are issues and no guarantee that he can play against bigger, elite defenders. He recent surge in scoring could also be attributed to a higher usage rate since Bruce Brown, another potential lottery pick, went down due to injury. However, there is a lot of upside here and if the Clips think they need more scoring from the guard position, they could do a lot worse than Lonnie Walker.
Keep checking back here as we approach the NBA Draft for more focus on potential prospects for your Los Angeles Clippers!