Miami’s Lonnie Walker IV is in the process of deciding if he’ll enter the Draft after a solid freshman season for the Hurricanes in which he was an Honorable Mention all-ACC selection and made the ACC all-freshman team. But despite projections that have him solidly in the first round, Walker is torn about what to do. (His father isn’t; Lonnie III wants his son to return to the 305 for his sophomore campaign.)
Walker had some strong offensive games: 25 points, with four 3-pointers, in an overtime win against Louisville in January, followed by a 23-point, 5-assist effort against Florida State. But both Walker and the Hurricanes were slowed by a foot injury to starting point guard Bruce Brown, Jr., who underwent surgery on it Feb. 1 and missed the rest of the season. (Brown, Jr., a sophomore, is also considering putting his name in for the Draft, but has an even cloudier decision than Walker’s, considering his rehab will continue while he tries to decide what to do.)
If Walker does come to the NBA, though, he has some fans.
“To me, he’s the best two guard in the draft,” a Central Division executive says. “He’s DeMar (DeRozan) with a jump shot. If he was at another school where he was a spotlight of the offense, everybody would be talking him top five, top 10 (in the Draft). And he’s supposed to be a hell of a kid. He’s very athletic.”
Walker came back after tearing the meniscus in his knee during an offseason workout last summer, spraining his ankle early in the regular season against Florida A&M and twisting his knee against Middle Tennessee State.
“He got a late start with the (first) injury,” one personnel man said. “He had no preseason. And then they brought him along slowly. They let him feel his way around and then they started coaching him once he got comfortable. But once Bruce got hurt, they had all these guys on the ball. No disrespect to (Chris) Lykes (who took over at the point for Brown), but he isn’t the kind of guy to set Lonnie up. Even though he’s small, he’s not really a facilitating guard. I don’t want to say he hurt Lonnie, but early (with Brown), there was a stability and Lonnie knew he was going to get touches.”
This personnel man is high on Walker’s upside.
“He’s an elite athlete,” he said. “You watch this kid get off the floor, he’s a quick twitch, bouncy, off of one foot, and off of two feet, with a prototypical stroke. That’s a kind of guy who’s going to be able to shoot. If all else fails, he can get into space and make a shot, and he can get down the floor and dunk the ball. He has a little issue when he gets into the paint. He’s so athletic, he tries to do a lot of things in there. It’s a blessing and a curse. He’ll leave off of one foot, hang, tuck, try to make some acrobatic play. He should just put his head down.
“He started to embrace (defense) and he got really good at it. He won three games for them by blocking shots at the end of games. He was being very disruptive, getting steals, getting deflections. That two-way ability is there. He has the feet to be able to guard people.”