Minnesota Sports Forum

I'm sure Lip is out dancing in the streets because we got him!!! :)

In all seriousness he is a somewhat interesting player as somewhat of a big combo guard. He is also a FA this offseason but the Wolves would at the very least have his bird rights to resign him if they wanted to. Below is an interesting article even if it's maybe a feel good "oh he is figuring things out article." Looks like Nowell already felt something NAWing at his playing time. :)

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/jazz/2022/12/15/secret-nickeil-alexander-walkers/

He's a restricted FA if we extend the qualifying offer, isn't he?

So the Wolves will have control over his future. Which they would/will not have had with Dlo, Nowell and Naz.

60WinTim wrote:He's a restricted FA if we extend the qualifying offer, isn't he?

So the Wolves will have control over his future. Which they would/will not have had with Dlo, Nowell and Naz.

Tim the qualifying offer is over 7 million...they will have to really want to keep him to offer that.

Could be a sneaky-good pick up. We need a better version of Austin Rivers that can come off the bench and help slow down or at least make life a bit more difficult for some of the elite guards in the West (Lillard, Morant, Curry, now Irving, etc.). Rivers tries his ass off, but he's......just OK. May be NAW can be an upgrade?

He's mainly salary filler. Wouldn't be surprised to see him moved again today.

Camden wrote:He's mainly salary filler. Wouldn't be surprised to see him moved again today.

That could be, although the Wolves still have to move/waive someone on their roster before they can complete the Dlo trade, and then do something else with NAW.

He has been pretty productive this season when given a chance. His biggest problem was being buried behind a bunch of other guys.

Q-was-here wrote:Could be a sneaky-good pick up. We need a better version of Austin Rivers that can come off the bench and help slow down or at least make life a bit more difficult for some of the elite guards in the West (Lillard, Morant, Curry, now Irving, etc.). Rivers tries his ass off, but he's......just OK. May be NAW can be an upgrade?

I was listening to a Utah podcast to see what they said about the trade. They liked Walker, said he was arguably their second best guard this season, behind Conley of course. They were pretty sad to see Conley go, but also liked finally having everything blown up and getting the last 1st round pick.

monsterpile wrote:I'm sure Lip is out dancing in the streets because we got him!!! :)

In all seriousness he is a somewhat interesting player as somewhat of a big combo guard. He is also a FA this offseason but the Wolves would at the very least have his bird rights to resign him if they wanted to. Below is an interesting article even if it's maybe a feel good "oh he is figuring things out article." Looks like Nowell already felt something NAWing at his playing time. :)

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/jazz/2022/12/15/secret-nickeil-alexander-walkers/

Yep, we finally got my guy. I've waited four long years for this!

Nickeil Alexander-Walker:

+1.9 D-EPM (96th percentile)*
2.2% STL% (77th percentile)*
2.3% BLK% (96th percentile)*

61% TS% (90th percentile)*
60% Rim FG% (66th percentile)*
40% 3P% (90th percentile)*

NAW will be a RFA this summer - an intriguing addition on the wing.
*among SGs

kekgeek1 wrote:Nickeil Alexander-Walker:

+1.9 D-EPM (96th percentile)*
2.2% STL% (77th percentile)*
2.3% BLK% (96th percentile)*

61% TS% (90th percentile)*
60% Rim FG% (66th percentile)*
40% 3P% (90th percentile)*

NAW will be a RFA this summer - an intriguing addition on the wing.
*among SGs

Thanks for sharing Kek. This is EXACTLY what we need if this is legit and sustainable. I don't want to take too much out of basically a half season of stellar numbers, but he is entering his prime in terms of age and may be has settled into a clear role.

You talk a lot about how crappy our defense is when Gobert sits. A lot of that is having Nowell and DLO in the backcourt together for stretches. We simply don't have the backline defenders off the bench (Reid, Knight, Garza) to cover up for all the dribble drive penetration and backdoor cuts these two get torched on, so the perimeter defenders need to do a much better job at containing. Can NAW be part of the solution?