Lonnie Walker agrees to one-year deal with Brooklyn Nets

Following an impressive handful of moments in the 2023 NBA Playoffs with the Los Angeles Lakers, guard Lonnie Walker has found a new home for the upcoming season.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Walker has agreed to a one-year deal with the Brooklyn Nets. Walker is represented by the Klutch Sports Group, and his agent Lucas Newton and CEO Rich Paul reportedly shared the news of his new deal with ESPN.

Last year for the Lakers, Walker appeared in 56 games and made 32 starts, 11.7 points per game on a career-high 44.8% field goal percentage. Walker started the season off as a starter, but following a knee injury and the retooling of the team’s roster in February, played more of a supporting role for the remainder of the season.

He mostly came off of the bench as a role player for Los Angeles, providing backcourt scoring for the Lakers’ second unit. But his biggest moment of the season came in the second round of the playoffs versus the Golden State Warriors.

After appearing in just 16 minutes of the Lakers’ first-round series versus the Memphis Grizzlies where he scored eight total points in the series (all in Game 6), Walker came of big for the team versus the defending champion Golden State Warriors.

He scored 12 points on 66.7% shooting in LA’s Game 3 victory, then followed it with an impressive 15-point performance with the same shooting percentage in Game 4. All 15 of his points were scored in the fourth quarter as he propelled the Lakers to a 104-101 win and a 3-1 second-round series lead behind his late, clutch scoring.

Walker’s skills must have impressed the Nets, as he joins their young core highlighted by Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson, and recent draft picks like Noah Clowney, Dariq Whitehead, and Jalen Wilson.

Walker was selected with the No. 18 overall pick of the 2018 NBA Draft out of Miami by the San Antonio Spurs. He spent the first four seasons of his career with San Antonio before signing a one-year, $6.5M contract with Los Angeles in July of 2022. He’s a career 42.2% shooter from the field and a 34.9% shooter from three-point range, averaging 9.9 points per game and has shown steady improvement throughout his five-year professional career.