Lonnie Walker exploded on the Raptors in Las Vegas

Summer League has become the second-year guard’s playground.

If you haven’t already gotten your Lonnie Walker IV stock, it may already be too late. As the Spurs young prospect continues to dominate in Summer League play, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to anticipate anything but stardom in his future. With 32 points on just 25 shooting possessions, good for a TS% of 62.4%, in the Spurs’ Monday night victory over the Raptors, Lonnie appeared unstoppable at times.

He got to the rim, hit pull-up jumpers from all over the court, and knocked down 50% of his deep balls, filling the only remaining hole in his Summer League resume to this point. In the words of former NBA player Kendrick Perkins:

He also chipped in 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks in his 30 minutes of play. There were whole stretches of the game where Lonnie seemed to be everywhere on both ends of the court. Not bad for a kid who hasn’t even turned 21, yet.

Though the Raptors put together a late run built on zone defense and fueled by sloppy Spurs’ passing, Lonnie was the story of the game.

The story wasn’t all good, as he pressed a bit when the team’s offense stagnated in the 4th quarter against the zone, and he had a late unforced error that gave the Raptors the ball back down by 3 with 15 seconds to go, but those were minor issues in comparison to his otherwise brilliant performance.

At the moment, it’s hard to imagine there’s anything left the Spurs need to see from him, or that there’s much more for him to gain from playing against this level of competition. Still, the repetition is important, as is the confidence that comes from succeeding over and over again. Whether this performance actually caps Lonnie’s incredible Summer League run up to this point or he has a few games left ahead of him, he’s clearly playing at a completely different level than anyone else on the court.

Lonnie Walker exploded on the Raptors in Las Vegas
Source: Pounding The Rock

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