Breathe in for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds, and silently say “dominate this day”. Then repeat this process.
After the routine ceremony at home on the home game day, Lonnie Walker IV drove to the home of the Lakers to prepare for the game.
On March 25, Beijing time, Walker did “dominate this day”. Because DeAngelo Russell was temporarily suspended due to injury, Walker ended his abandoned state and returned to the rotation lineup. He took part in the 24-minute 12-shot 7, of which 3-8-shot 4-shot, plus a penalty of 4, 2 scored 20 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals. The Lakers finally beat Thunder by 116-111, raising the winning rate to 50% for the first time in the season.
Fire-fighting player, ordered in danger, shining.
Walker never lacks strength. Although he has some shortcomings, he cannot even enter the rotation lineup. In recent times, what Walker lacks is just opportunities. After the First World War between Walker and Thunder broke out, Will Lakers coach Ham give Walker and Malik Beasley a chance to compete on a fair playing time?
During the off-season last year, Walker joined the Lakers with a mini middle class of 6.5 million dollars a year. At that time, the industry generally believed that this was a wonderful pen of Pelinka. After all, Walker was only 24 years old this year and had excellent sports talent, it is the fresh blood that the Lakers need.
When Walker took part in the pre-draft test, he proved himself in front of legends such as Pat Riley and Jerry West and won wide recognition, this also made him the 18th show in 2018. However, although Walker made progress in the four years Spurs, the overall development did not meet expectations. In addition to the crowd in the back Spurs, the Lakers got the chance to pick up leaks.
After joining the Lakers, Walker made a white writing board in the room with his short-term and long-term goals written on it.
Short-term goal: to become the best player of the week and lock in the starting line.
Long-term goal: to be the fastest progressive player of the year.
Walker had experienced the honeymoon period after joining the Lakers. Although the Lakers had a bad record at that time, Walker’s performance as the starting point was remarkable. The Lakers won only 2 games in the first 12 games, and Walker scored 18 points and 28 points respectively in those 2 games. In the following 10 games, the Lakers won 8 victories, and Walker played 9 of them, with an average of 17.8 points, with a positive and negative value of +7.3 points. At that time, it seemed that the goal Walker set himself was not a daydream.
At the end of November, Walker scored 18 points and 19 points respectively in the two consecutive matches with the old boss Spurs, with a total of 14 shots and 7 scores in downtown. Walker’s growth won the praise of teacher Popovich baby.
“From the first day, he was a great athlete, and he had talents that many players did not have. In the past, he always relied on his athletic ability to play. Compared with other players, his athletic ability seemed incredible. But now, with the increase of experience, he began to understand the content of the spirit level of the competition more, which you can see from his performance.”
During that time, Ham also trusted Walker very much. Ham said, “I think his confidence broke through the sky. This child’s performance was phenomenal. I trusted him very much, I believe he can contribute.”
Walker could live up to Ham’s trust. Before he fell down due to tendonitis of his left knee, he scored a 14.7-point career record on average, with a hit rate of 38.4 percent in three points, becoming a reliable space point. Unfortunately, the sudden injury affected Walker’s position. According to Ham, knee tendonitis is normal for Walker, a Kweichow Moutai retreat. They don’t want Walker’s injury to aggravate and trigger a chain reaction, so he decided to let Walker take a break.
Walker stopped 14 games due to tendinitis injury of his left knee. When he came back, the starting position was no longer his, and Ham trusted Troy Brown more.
Before the trade deadline, the Lakers completed the reinforcement through multiple transactions. First, eight villages arrived, then Russell, Beasley, Vanderbilt and Bamba joined, and Walker’s playing time was constantly eroded. After Russell returned from injury, Walker was abandoned. Five of the previous seven games did not appear today, and the other two played less than 13 minutes, basically from garbage time.
Walker admitted that it was very painful to fall out of rotation. He felt depressed and lost himself as if he had pressed the pause button these weeks. But Walker didn’t slack off all the time. He kept a positive attitude in the stadium every day and waited silently for his number to be called. After the outbreak of Walker today, Ham also praised Walker for maintaining a state of preparation, which perfectly explained the definition of professional players.
Ham is a data control coach. He adjusted Austin Reeves into the first start and abandoned Walker, and got the certification of data analysis. However, objectively speaking, Walker has not received fair treatment this season. His high-level data is not good-looking, largely because of the team configuration and Hamm’s troop arrangement.
In the first half of the season, because the Lakers’ configuration was too poor and the team was affected by injuries, Walker, who originally played No. 2, reached No. 3 in 38% of the time, and his height was less than 1.93 meters, it is too short to hit some pairs in the second position, let alone the third position. In addition, Hamm sometimes wanted to play four defenders suddenly, and Walker reached the fourth position 2% of the time.
The Lakers have 11 sets of five-member groups with positive and negative values reaching-15 points, of which 6 sets have Walker. Among the 6 sets, 3 sets have Russell-Westbrook names at the same time, there are 3 sets of three-guard configurations, one of which is James + weishao + Schroeder + Walker + Reeves’s four-guard configuration. In such a “suicide” lineup, Walker’s defense data cannot look good.
After the end of the transaction, the Lakers’ configuration improved, and Walker did not enjoy the benefits of configuration improvement. He spent very little time with several main players at the same time, the five-member group containing Walker, which has been used by the Lakers for the longest time, is Walker + Brown + eight villages + Gabriel + Reeves. Although the offensive efficiency of this lineup is not good, the loss of 100 rounds is only 102 points, and the defense is good. This also proves that if Walker has a suitable match of defensive, his defensive loopholes can be covered up.
Walker and Beasley have their own advantages. They should have played fairly, and who performed better and who played more. But some time ago, Ham was obviously more superstitious about Beasley, who was called “good projection ability.
In fact, Beasley’s projection this season is not above Walker. His three-point hit rate in the vacant state (no defender within at least 4 feet) is 37.7%, while Walker is 39.5%. Beasley’s best weapon is not as good as Walker, let alone Walker has better attack efficiency of blocking and removing the ball.
Ham didn’t like Walker during this period, probably because of Walker’s defensive defects. The contradiction is that Walker and Beasley are both 1.93 meters, and Beasley is not taller. Both of them were bad at limiting the hit rate of their opponents, with Beasley being 49 percent and Walker being 49.5 percent.
Under the condition that Russell and James are both healthy, if ham uses the rotation of 8-9 people, Walker will probably fall out of the rotation lineup again. But at least now, Walker deserves a chance to compete fairly with Beasley and Brown.
Walker knew that his prospect depended on Hamm’s attitude, which was beyond his control. What he could control was his continuous progress and moving the coach with his performance.
Walker’s mentality was always peaceful, and he temporarily dispelled the clouds shrouded in his heart with his positive attitude and seizing the opportunity.
“I have been reading a book recently, which says, ‘you have a chance to improve by 1% every day’.”
“So, let’s increase by 1% every day.”