Boston Celtics shocking signing: Lonnie Walker signs training camp deal

Brad Stevens does it again he gets Lonnie Walker on a training camp deal what a surprise let's talk about it right now on a bonus lock on Celtics podcast thanks the Blockbuster it's holiday season drop Drew in the mix and three from KP no we not on the flushing competition like all on Yannis juicing Big D still being Town's finest been a r te going up in the rafs watching SE gameing on after on the breakdown like a tip from d on the breakdown John on the mic documenting domination matter P back B all SE Nation ring J how we starter raising B how we finish locked on Celtics P home of the winners hey there welcome back to the lockdown Celtics podcast right here on the lockdown podcast Network where it's your team every day now I've been Monday Wednesday Friday three days a week hey this week four days because the Celtics pull off a surprise shocking signing it's the end of August and Lonnie Walker is a Boston Celtic Lonnie Walker who is a decent NBA player an actual worthy of minutes NBA player so first of all wow right wow uh making this uh a fourth podcast this week tomorrow tomorrow will still be a crossover uh with Gavin Shaw of locked on Nicks so make sure you're uh checking that out as well we get into a lot of uh discussion of potential uh matchups between the Celtics and the Knicks this upcoming season but I wanted to take like 1015 minutes to give you a reaction to this Lonnie Walker signing subscribe to get your podcast dropped directly to your device watch a show on YouTube ring the bell so you get notified maybe you weren't expecting this podcast and this notification is what can tell you like oh wait corales dropped the show yeah yeah by the way that's my name John corales uh I've been covering the Boston Celtics for nearly 20 years now I've written a book called the Boston Celtics uh for called built different Celtics historic run to the championship it's a commemorative book you can buy uh basically anywhere you you buy books I will be selling them online soon on my website you can get signed copy there those will be for like 30 bucks so that's coming up within the next week or so all let's just get to business here Lonnie Walker who as I've said is a a decent NBA player he is an NBA player for sure he is worthy of getting minutes on just about any NBA team he got plenty of time last year over the past Four Seasons he's 25 years old so he's been in the league now six years over the past Four Seasons he's averaged 11.2 points per game he shot 38% uh last season 38 and a half perc from three with Brooklyn last season he's had some decent games he had uh eight games last season of 20 plus points he had 15 or 17 games with 15 points or more he's a legitimately qualified NBA player who I had forgotten was even available I didn't even pay attention to him not getting signed anywhere because I just figured he would sign with some team somewhere that had more money to pay than the Celtics were gonna offer him I just didn't I never had Lonnie Walker in mind because the Celtics could only afford minimum contracts and I thought he'd be getting more than a minimum maybe a bike annual exception maybe a piece of somebody's midlevel make three4 million a year in this in this market with this much money being thrown around Lonnie Walker should be getting a few million dollars a year to play basketball the sell this get him not just a one-year deal a one-year fully non-guaranteed exhibit 10 contract which is almost always exclusively used for the types of players that come in get you know a flyer uh your Ron Harper Juniors those types of guys that you're going to bring in let's give them a look let's cut him in training camp send him to Maine and see if he shows us anything there and if he flourishes then great we'll we'll potentially bring him back that's the exhibit 10 contract to have that be how the Celtics get Lonnie Walker shows I don't know there's there's too much talent lying around I've seen a few people talk about online that this shows that expansion is we are ripe for expansion when guys as good as Lonnie Walker um and again not a world beater not great not like your Sixth Man or anything but he has the potential to be a part of Boston's rotation this I I can't stress enough how like shocked and almost confused that this that I am at at this signing at the end of August September is like a couple days away we're wearing hoodies now it's starting we're starting to get the chills in the air the sun is starting to set earlier this is not the time teams normally sign rotation players to get this guy here on an exhibit 10 contract it's just I I'm I'm looking around and be like did I miss something with Lonnie Walker was something no no he was just available either teams were are are being way too cautious um or teams didn't really do their due diligence to understand what he was willing to take I don't know what it is but he legitimately has a chance to climb into a seventh eth man roll when I say this is a no risk High reward move for Boston it is the absolute Pinnacle of no risk High reward there is zero risk with Walker because if he comes to camp and he can't grasp anything it he just sucks for some reason if something is just not right they can cut him i' I'd be shocked if he ends up in the g-league that would just make no sense at all he's not a g-league player the Celtics could send them to the G league if they wanted to but if it doesn't work you can cut them and it's not even like there's a a minimum contract where you say yeah you cut them you're still gonna have to pay this you know however much he's earned he's six years he's gonna make over a million dollars uh it's not like that is sitting there as dead money and you're like well we took the risk we gotta pay no fully non- guaranteed if he sucks or the situation isn't right you cut him and it's zero on dead money no risk but High reward because he shot like I said 38 a half% from three in Brooklyn 3 6 and a half% the year before on wideopen shots he shot 40.4% on catch and shoot opportunities in Brooklyn last year and that's in Brooklyn now they were a running gun team they got up and down the floor they were not afraid to shoot three-pointers kind of what the Celtics like to do maybe not at the pace at all what Brooklyn did but they like to create those catch and shoot opportunities Sam Hower got 3.2 catch and shoot opportunities in his minutes Payton priner got 2.7 Walker got 1.9 in Brooklyn so Walker has an opportunity on his 40.4% shooting on catch and shoots to take advantage of getting more catch and shoots he go he goes from Brooklyn to the NBA champs and a team that likes to spread the floor and move the ball There's an opportunity there for him to steal minutes from Sam Hower he's 6'4 he's 25 years old he's a big-time athlete he legitimately could be and I keep saying legitimately because this signing makes it seem like well they just signed some scrub and he is not just some scrub so I feel like I'm saying the word legitimately to emphasize how much this signing can benefit Boston he could steal minutes from Sam Hower he could steal minutes from Payton Pritchard because he has the size to get out there you know you've got Derek white and Drew holiday you've got guys who can handle the ball I'm not and I'm not trying to minimize Payton Pritchard or anything like that but here's a guy 6'4 and a big-time athlete you can throw him out there and you you don't have a smaller guy out there he he can get he can get some of those minutes if if he's able to produce he can be your seventh man assuming full health and and kristos porzingis is is your starter and healthy and Al Horford is your sixthman but Walker could be the guy that Subs in for Jaylen Brown they've they play the same position how much of a drop off is is there when you compare that your first sub is uh Hower or Pritchard right Walker is an potentially a better two-way player maybe not a better shooter than Hower but there's there's something there let me take a second here uh because I I just want to dive a little bit deeper into why he has an opportunity to make an impact here with the Celtics today's episode is brought to you by eBay Motors passion drive and patience that's the formula for winning championships it's also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to Peak Performance superchargers roof racks exhaust kits LED headlights and more whether you're into speed power or style eBay Motors has you covered I know my locked on NBA partner Jake Madison uses eBay Motors uh he's in New Orleans he he likes cars I've seen his Corvette that he has used eBay Motors to fix up and uh it does does the job they have over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die and you're always GNA find exactly what you're looking for and with eBay guaranteed fit that part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or you get your 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absence of christops porzingis you cannot put too much on Drew holiday holiday's 34 he plays tough physical basketball you don't want to you don't want to put too much on him too early so we've been looking at this roster and saying hey I've been talking about maybe Jaden Springer comes in and gets an opportunity well this is this is another guy in that same mold he's a decent Defender he was um the best he had the best defensive rating of any Brooklyn Net against the Boston Celtics thank you Shan Grandy for that stat so he can come in and play some decent defense is he always a great defender no he's going to have to figure some stuff out there's also I keep using leg legitimate chance there is a legitimate chance that he doesn't stay on uh because he can't grasp what the Celtics are doing defensively and and who knows but he's he's a good enough Defender that you can throw him out there and not be like you know chomping on your fingernails going I hope they don't Target him that he might be the guy that they target because he's he's still the worst defender on the floor because the souths have a bunch of really really good Defenders but he's not somebody that you look at and say I'm worried so he's capable he can shoot like I said and if he gets better shots he can make more of those shots he's another guy you can throw out there and eat some of those minutes that th that Innings eater that we talk about um using the baseball kind of analogy the comparison if you can use walker during the regular season to keep Tatum's minutes down to keep jaylen's minutes down to keep holiday's minutes down that's that's a big deal if you can stick Walker in there and not have a gigantic drop off you have a guy who's capable of putting up some points hitting some shots playing within the the Missoula ball system this this could be a big deal this could be a home run for for Brad Stevens who somehow managed to do it again the exhibit 10 portion is really what is is driving a lot of people online crazy because everybody the consensus reaction is really exhibit 10 Fon Walker that's that doesn't make any sense and the fact that the Celtics can get that look and not have to spend guaranteed money it's it's shocking to me so bottom line here it's the ultimate it is it is like the Marge Simpson finding the Chanel suit at the outlet mall and just getting wow what an amazing markdown on this yeah this is this is a huge deal for Boston this is the this it could be by the time the season ends the type of signing where people look at and go wow that that's that might be the most underrated good signing of the off season like the Celtics got a guy for nothing that came in and contributed if he becomes part of this rotation then give Brad Stevens exec of the Year again because not only did he keep this team together comes out of nowhere with a guy that could be part of the rotation for the absolute cheapest possible contract the lowest no-risk contract um that you can get uh it is funny again Ashan Grandy stat he's a career 59% shooter against Boston his best against any team continuing the Brad Stevens trend of of signing guys who torch the Celtics it's just maybe we should have seen this coming so I don't know I'm I'm extraordinarily high on this just because of the the no risk element if the Celtics under the old structure I feel like the Celtics could have gotten him like his Market would have been taxpayer midlevel under the old CBA structure they probably you know he probably would have gotten that five6 million and I think that would be appropriate and at that money the conversation would be a little bit different because you say you say okay at that money yeah he he has the chance to to be part of the rotation he has a chance to Maybe not maybe he's a guy that gets that falls out of the playoff rotation uh but who knows he's he has 76 career starts he he has shown the ability and he was part of some success for the Lakers a couple of seasons ago when he was there LeBron there's a clip of LeBron where he's you know gassing up Lonnie Walker he's he's been and he's L an old teammate of Derek white so Derek's gonna be able to kind of fill him in on stuff I'm sure right away Derek white was on the phone with Lonnie he's like hey welcome to Boston here's everything you need to know let's hit this ground running but getting him at this money is incredible incredible it really this has to go down it has the potential to go down as a real feather in Brad Stevens cap when we start listing all of the guys that he was able to bring in and you say hey got Derek white for this like that that was not a that trade ends up being heavily in Boston's favor he ended up getting Drew holiday hends up getting Chris hops porzingis all of these moves and you say look at these underrated sign look at the signing look at the Lonnie Walker signing you got him for nothing and look at what his impact was this season he has a chance to be an impact player so what else can you say great job Brad thanks for listening bonus podcast here so hope you enjoy it uh again I will drop the uh the New York nck crossover podcast tomorrow so make sure you listen to that so you get four podcasts this week I said three a week but sometimes something happens and now you get four so hey fun times for everybody hope you enjoyed it hope you uh if you're new hope you enjoyed it enough to subscribe to the show and uh ring the bell on that YouTube page so you can get notified when I drop new videos get into the comments section let me know what you think of the Lonnie Walker signing and I would it now if you shared the podcast and told everybody they should be listening to and watching the lockdown Celtics podcast here in the lockdown podcast Network it's your team every day