{"id":105055,"date":"2024-11-05T10:31:22","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T15:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=105055"},"modified":"2024-11-05T10:31:22","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T15:31:22","slug":"nuggets-interested-signing-standout-lonnie-walker-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/05\/nuggets-interested-signing-standout-lonnie-walker-iv\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuggets Interested In Signing Standout Playoff Performer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Denver Nuggets are now 4-3 and while formidable, they look far from a world-beater. With there being more parity in the NBA these days, that\u2019s not necessarily unexpected. However, the fact that they won a championship in 2023 has many feeling like they should be better than they currently are.<\/p>\n<p>If they would\u2019ve traded for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a> instead of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/westbru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Russell Westbrook<\/a>, maybe they would look as dominant as expected. Unfortunately, it\u2019s unlikely that anybody will ever know <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/01\/nuggets-reluctance-paul-george-trade-talks-is-negligent\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">what that would\u2019ve looked like<\/a>. That being said, the Nuggets still have opportunities to fortify their roster, be it through a trade, free agency, or internal development.<\/p>\n<p>For now, the latter option is what Denver has chosen. Hoping for jumps from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/braunch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Christian Braun<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/strawju01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Julian Strawther<\/a>, and perhaps even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/portemi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Porter Jr.<\/a>, the Nuggets have placed their faith in the work they\u2019ve already done. Nonetheless, there\u2019s at least one player who Denver is considering signing ahead of the 2025 NBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>While the Boston Celtics are still thinking about signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/walkelo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lonnie Walker IV<\/a> \u201clater this season depending on <a href=\"https:\/\/marcstein.substack.com\/p\/this-week-in-can-only-do-a-lot-of\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">what sort of roster flexibility<\/a> can be manufactured\u2026 Denver is another team to watch as the season unfolds when it comes to Walker&#8217;s possible NBA return,\u201d per The Stein Line\u2019s Marc Stein.<\/p>\n<p>The Milwaukee Bucks are another team <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/02\/bucks-strong-interest-signing-euroleague-lonnie-walker-iv\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">that\u2019s been linked<\/a> to Walker.<\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old currently <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/30\/celtics-lose-free-agent-roster-hopeful-lonnie-walker-iv-euroleague\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">plays for EuroLeague\u2019s Zalgiris Kaunas<\/a> after being released by the Celtics after the preseason. \u201cReal Madrid and Maccabi Tel-Aviv are among the other EuroLeague clubs that pursued Walker,\u201d according to Stein. \u201c\u2026 Zalgiris&#8217; willingness to consent to a (NBA buyout) clause\u2026 made it an irresistible alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Nuggets Interested In Signing Standout Playoff Performer Lonnie Walker IV<\/h2>\n<p>The Nuggets\u2019 interest in Walker inspires images of his performance in the 2023 NBA Playoffs. Then with the Los Angeles Lakers, Walker had one of the more intriguing storylines.<\/p>\n<p>In the first round, Walker played sparingly against the Memphis Grizzlies, tallying just 15 total minutes after six games. However, he stepped up in Game 6, scoring eight points in nine minutes while going 2-5 from deep.<\/p>\n<p>In the semifinals, Walker was in the rotation regularly, sans Game 1. It was then, while playing against the Golden State Warriors, that his reputation got a boost. He was scoring efficiently and playing hard-nosed defense, which were two of his problem areas when he was with the San Antonio Spurs. In Game 4, he scored 15 points in the fourth quarter to help Los Angeles take a commanding 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Thread: Lonnie Walker G4 Defense<\/p>\n<p>The 15pt fourth quarter is getting all the buzz, but Walker was absolutely stifling on the defensive end vs GS<\/p>\n<p>Warriors running Split<\/p>\n<p>LW gets skinny to fight through the screen\/deter a Curry 3, rotates to GP and again to Curry to force a miss <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BTVdX1kXuu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/BTVdX1kXuu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LAbound (@LAbound2) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LAbound2\/status\/1655940863879688195?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 9, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>By the time the Western Conference Finals began, Walker was walking on air. He couldn\u2019t find the court much with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/reaveau01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Reaves<\/a> (39.6\/g), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hachiru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rui Hachimura<\/a> (33.5\/g), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/schrode01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dennis Schroder<\/a> (31.2\/g), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/russeda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/a> (23.5\/g) taking up the lion\u2019s share of minutes. However, he had a couple of pretty solid performances. In Game 1 and Game 3, Walker posted 15 points on 4-8 shooting from three combined.<\/p>\n<p>For a championship-contender such as Denver, a player who does well under the brightest lights is the one you want.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Denver Nuggets are now 4-3 and while formidable, they look far from a world-beater. With there being more parity in the NBA these days, that\u2019s not necessarily unexpected. However, the fact that they won a championship in 2023 has many feeling like they should be better than they currently are. If they would\u2019ve traded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":105188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,1608,5,25,26,15,62,3],"tags":[1617,4652,297,596],"class_list":["post-105055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nuggets","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-warriors","category-lakers","category-bucks","category-nba","category-news","tag-lonnie-walker","tag-lonnie-walker-iv","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-nba-playoffs"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}