Lonnie Walker IV Scouting Report

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Lonnie Walker IV (Wing, 19, 6'5", 196 lbs)

Statistical Profile

Strengths

Walker has a great frame for a multipositional wing with a 6'10” wingspan and a developed body for his age. He is a great athlete who can explode off one or two feet and has burst both in transition and in traffic. He’s a great straight line driver with a very quick first step off the catch. His shot mechanics are above average and he has excellent range. He’s not limited to a catch-and-shoot guy at this stage and he can rise off the dribble and off screens with consistency. As a shooter off the dribble, he can face up and dribble drive after a jab step or he can attack a closeout with a 1–2 dribble and rise. Nearly 75% of his catch-and-shoot opportunities were guarded this season, and on the 25% of open jumpers Walker took, he scored an incredible 1.714 points per possession.

Off the ball, Walker is a plus slasher and has finishing ability around the rim to go along with great body control in the air. He has plus IQ spreading the floor to the corner or cutting backdoor based off quick reads of the defense. He was one of the best cutters in the country scoring 1.929 ppp on 14 cutting possessions according to Synergy.

Walker is an unselfish player and a good passer both in transition and in pick and roll. He has the ability to handle in ball screens and hit the roll man, or throw skip passes to the corners.

Defensively, Walker leverages his athleticism and quickness to guard in space. He’s best as a point of attack defender staying with guards in 1-on-1 situations.

He uses his length and foot speed to contain dribble drives and has the frame to hold up against bigs on switches. He’s athletic and quick enough to chase players around screens and has the motor to get over a screen as well. He has plus IQ defensively when it comes to team defense, sticking to rotations, tagging the roll man, closing out quickly and recovering well.

Weaknesses

As a ball handler, Walker is aimless at times when it comes to creating his own shots or making players for others. His handle is functional but he lacks advanced moves or advanced shake. He dribbles with his palms, keeps his head down on the move and struggles to handle in traffic due to poor control. He’s not the best change of direction athlete either and tends to stop short in the lane. He can shy away from contact and finishing in traffic at the rim where his touch is average despite excellent hang time and body control. He doesn’t have the best IQ in terms of finding efficient shots and is not an anticipatory passer. His floor vision is adequate and doesn’t always make the best pass in drive-and-kick situations or in ball screens.

Defensively, while his IQ is pretty good, he can get caught ball watching and has a tendency to drift towards the ball and allow backdoor cuts or kick-out threes.

He can stick with bigger wings in the post but on dribble penetration he doesn’t have the best balance and can get knocked off his spot by stronger guards. He’s not 6'6" or 6'7" so it’s possible that he may be limited to switching 1–3 and never be able to stick with bigger forwards. He isn’t a good rebounder despite his explosive leaping ability which may point to poor instincts.

Summary

Walker’s production may have been suppressed at Miami due to his recovery from a knee injury as well as a rotation deep with ball handling and high usage guards. He has a great frame, elite athleticism, an advanced shooting stroke and has flashed potential to be a good finisher at the rim as well as an agile point of attack defender. As an overall player, Walker is quite incomplete, making poor decisions at times and never being fully in tune with the flow of a game. However, the individual aspects of parts of his game are extremely appealing and look like the foundation for a very useful and versatile player. He’ll need to be more instinctual and cerebral to truly excel at the next level and learn to be a better decision maker with the ball in his hands. He is one of the low floor high upside prospects in this Draft, and if he can become a high volume three point shooter as his mechanics suggest, as well as an effective point of attack defender with some playmaking ability, he could be one of the better players in this class. If he becomes a poor team defender and his shooting doesn’t translate, he may become a Ben McLemore-type who has elite athleticism but fails to develop a well-rounded game.