Lonnie Walker Already Being in Gregg Popovich's Doghouse is a Terrible Sign This Early in Season
By Jerry Trotta
It's fairly well known within the NBA landscape that San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is not one to sugarcoat things. Whether he's talking basketball or politics, he calls it like it is.
Well, following the Spurs 103-97 loss on Thursday night to the Los Angeles Clippers, Popovich was asked for his thoughts on sophomore winger Lonnie Walker, who apparently left a lot to be desired with his minutes.
As is his forte, Pop utterly lambasted the Miami product, adding that he played "horribly," and that he was "non-competitive" on the hardwood.
Pop said Lonnie did "horribly." Asked if that's to be expected from a young player, Pop said, "Well, I expect better effort, better awareness and a better attempt to take advantage of the minutes that he gets. I thought he was non-competitive." #Spurs
— Tom Orsborn (@tom_orsborn) November 1, 2019
All of those pundits who predicted that Walker would have a breakout year after his injury-riddled rookie campaign probably couldn't hear worse news.
If there is ever a place that an NBA player should not want to be, it's in Popovich's doghouse. What makes the 20-year-old's predicament that much more concerning is that he only saw five minutes of game time against the Clippers.
According to a plethora of individuals who watched Friday night's game, however Walker didn't play all that bad. In fact, some were even applauding his performance.
What is it going to take for Pop to give Lonnie Walker IV a shot at cracking the rotation?
— Noah Magaro-George ??? (@N_Magaro) November 1, 2019
Marco Belinelli is 6-of-20 with 3 turnovers and 4 fouls in 65 minutes over four games.
Lonnie has played excellent defense in limited opportunities and possesses uncommon two-way upside.
Here's a clip of the former Hurricane forcing a turnover on Kawhi Leonard, arguably the game's best player, with exceptional man-to-man defense:
Someone posted “video of Lonnie Walker being non-competitive” (as Coach Pop called him) during the 5 minutes he was on the floor for the Spurs against the Clippers. Then they added footage of Marco at the tail end. #GoSpursGo #SpursReport pic.twitter.com/aNJJgYfOiL
— D. Garza (@Dgarza888) November 1, 2019
We're no experts and Pop is obviously a legend, but that looks like about as good of an effort that a player can give on a defensive sequence.
Perhaps Popovich is dishing out some tough love to Walker to keep him on his toes, but we are genuinely confounded as to why he's in the doghouse already.