Nets, Lonnie Walker IV agree to one-year deal, source confirms
The Lakers' Lonnie Walker IV dribbles during the first half of an NBA game against Golden State on March 5 in Los Angeles. Credit: AP/Jae C. Hong
The Nets have reached an agreement with Lonnie Walker IV on a one-year deal, a league source confirmed to Newsday on Sunday.
Walker averaged 11.7 points for the Lakers in 56 games last season. The 6-4 guard also was a key reserve in the playoffs, averaging 10.6 points in the Lakers’ semifinal series win over Golden State.
Free-agent deals and trades won’t be official until Thursday, when the NBA’s moratorium is lifted at 12:01 p.m.
Walker, 24, adds another scoring option to a team that needs more shot creators. He shot a career-high 44.8% from the field last season, including 36.5% on three-pointers.
He started 32 of the Lakers’ first 35 games and was averaging 14.7 points while shooting 38.4% from three-point range until a knee injury in late December. Walker missed a month and returned as a reserve before his minutes decreased when the team traded for Malik Beasley.
During his first four seasons with the Spurs, Walker improved his scoring every year. With the Lakers, he shot a career-best 52.2% on two-point field goals.
Walker’s persistence after a role change likely also was attractive to the Nets. General manager Sean Marks said during exit interviews that he liked the edge the team showed after the trade deadline.
“Without a doubt, we need to make some changes like in terms of adding some size . . . add a little nastiness,” Marks said in April. “So yeah, add a little bit of that, right, and a little bit of the Brooklyn grit that we’ve talked about for sort of six years.”
The Nets remain under the $165 million luxury tax. They entered Sunday about $16 million below the tax, and because Walker made $6.48 million last season, the Nets likely used some of their $12.2 million midlevel exception to add him.
Dennis Smith Jr., whom the Nets added Saturday, signed a one-year deal worth a reported $2.5 million, per HoopsHype.
The Nets have 14 roster spots filled. Through free agency, they have added two guards, re-signed Cam Johnson and shed $26.7 million of salary by agreeing to trade Joe Harris and Patty Mills.
The salary dumps hint at two things: Create enough cap space for Johnson’s four-year, $108 million contract and avoid being above the luxury tax for a fourth consecutive season.
Marks said that while the team isn’t afraid to pay the luxury tax, it wouldn’t hurt to avoid it without sacrificing being competitive.
“Are we going to pay tax just for the sake of paying tax? No, that wouldn’t be a smart business decision, right?” Marks said. “And I couldn’t sit here and say to Joe [Tsai, the owner], ‘We should do this or we should do that.’ But we’ll be strategic about how we get out of the tax.”
If that means more trades, so be it. The Nets reportedly are in discussions involving Royce O’Neale and Dorian Finney-Smith that would involve acquiring more first-round picks.
The Nets have six contracts that will expire next summer, including Spencer Dinwiddie, Nic Claxton and O’Neale.
Adding Walker brings more scoring, but the Nets still need more size besides Claxton, Day’Ron Sharpe and first-round pick Noah Clowney. It means plenty still can change.
“Everybody hears what’s going on, we know the pieces we have and you just never know in this league,” O’Neale said in April. “So I guess we’re going to see . . . what’s going on and go from there.”
Evan Barnes covers the Nets for Newsday. He previously covered Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
