According to reports, Nickeil Alexander-Walker accepts a 4-year agreement and $ 62 million with Atlanta Hawks
Nickeil Alexander-Walker accepted a four-year agreement of $ 62 million with the Atlanta Hawks on Monday evening, According to Shams Charania by Espn -A significant giving for the Canadian swingman, who developed in a constant collaborator of 3 and D during two seasons in Minnesota and now heads to his peak with the opportunity to continue that growth.
Alexander-Walker, 26, made his way to become a key piece out of the bench for the Timberwolves teams who made consecutive appearances of the Western Conference finals. But both with Naz Reid and Julius Randle for new contracts, with Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels all in the books, and with the threat of the second impending apron, the Minnesota ended up letting Alexander-Walker, Um, walk, their loss is the gain of the Hawks.
Announcement
The agreement represents a vote of trust for Alexander-Walker who has not always been a data during his first seasons as a professional. Roomed by Brooklyn with the 17th overall choice in the draft of the 2019 NBA, the Virginia Tech product was exchanged twice before always adapting to Atlanta in an agreement that made Prince Taureano a network, and then in New Orleans in the trade he got de’Andre Hunter with the Hawks. Alexander-Walker showed two-way folding flashes during his period with the Pellicans, gaining minutes of rotation from the bench in his second year campaign, but he fought to constantly make shots and cement himself as a piece of the hoped for nucleus while playing under three coaches (Alvin Gentry, Stan Van Gundy, Willie Green) in his first two and a half.
Alexander-Walker was again launched twice in rapid succession at the commercial expiration of 2022-Prima to the blazers of the path as part of the trade that brought CJ McCollum to the Pellicani, and then in the Utah in an exchange for three teams involving the Spurs. He would have shot 40% from a range of 3 points in 51 games in Salt Lake City, but his minutes and opportunities have reduced themselves to some very different parts of two seasons on very different iterations of jazz-la before, the edition of the last post-auction gap led by Gobert and Donovan Mitchell under Quin Snyder; The latter, the first year of the post-Milan/Gobert/Snyder reconstructed under the new CEO Danny Ainge and the new coach Will Hardy.
When the commercial deadline of 2023 rolled around, Alexander-Walker seemed on the gloomy path towards the fringes of the League; When the Utah sent him to the Timberwolves as part of a three -team trade, eight players, with four drafts, consideration of its potential value, remained far behind the discussion on how the trio of Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt could rejuvenate the Lakers, what Mike Conley’s arrival would have had a second West. (Spoiler: would not do it.)
Announcement
But after the best cap of the perimeter McDaniels broke his hand by joining a wall during the final of the regular season of Minnesota, the coach head Chris Finch slipped Alexander-Walker in the initial formation for the playoff match of the first shift of the wolves against the Nugget. Denver has Blitzy the wolves in five games, but Minnesota played Nikola Jokić and Co. hard as anyone during the Waltz dei Nugget at the NBA championship, and Alexander-Walker acquitted well in the trial, with an average of 8.4 points in 29.8 minutes per game, shooting from 40% from the radius of 3 points and using his rapid and his defense to make his life On Murray.
That performance gained Alexander-Walker a prolonged service tour in the Twin Cities on a re-up-two years, $ 9 million, just 3% of the salary limit-that would have become a real theft while developing the type of complementary backcourt that every branch contender developed on their own.
6 feet-5 and 205 pounds with a 6-foot and 9 wing opening, Alexander-Walker is ideal for pulling defensive shifts on difficult covers through perimeter positions, having spent a significant time to protect artists of the caliber of Murray, Devin Booker, Kyrie Irving, Luka Donči and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the last three Postasons. (Alexander-Walker is Gilgeous-Aalxander’s Cousin. When the Wolves and Thunder Met in the Western Conference Finals, You Might Have Heard the Broadcast Mention That Once, Twice or 5,000 Times.) He’s become an unwelling in the Long-destance Marksman, exped Corners, where He Drilled Well over 40% of his studs in Minnesota, and Has Taken Screees Finishing Around the Rim After Beating a Closeout with a Drive to the cup.
Announcement
The combination of defense of creating events and efficiency of higher average score is quite rare for the guards. According to Stathead, only 13 other backcourt players who have recorded at least 3,000 minutes in total in the last two seasons have recorded a percentage of real shooting, a blocking rate and a theft rate up to that of Naw. Some of them occupy a perennial All-Star/All-Nba territory: SGA, Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton, James Harden, Murray (who has never done one of those teams, but tends to sit just outside that conversation and was the guard of the starting point of a championship team, so we will group it here).
The rest of the list, however, includes names such as Derrick White and Jrue Holiday, Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace, Christian Braun and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jalen Suggest: super precious role-players in high-level teams, guys able to help win without needing the ball in the hands very much.
Those boys are worth their gold weight to the teams in the running for the championships; They are also paid. And now, Alexander-Walker is one of them.