Flexibility has develop into a lifestyle for Nickeil Alexander-Walker, each on and off the sector.
Flexibility has develop into a lifestyle for Nickeil Alexander-Walker, each on and off the sector.
The 26-year-old Minnesota Timberwolves combo guard honed his varied abilities enjoying basketball along with his cousin Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, now a perennial MVP candidate for the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, with the 2 always switching place. That upbringing, coupled with enjoying on three groups in six seasons to start his NBA profession, allowed Alexander-Walker to adapt to nearly any state of affairs.
“I feel you simply have to know, given the best way my profession has gone to this point, you simply have to know that it’s a must to discover methods to have the ability to get on the sector,” stated Alexander-Walker Wednesday. “It’s an enormous a part of who I’m, being versatile, versatile, simply discovering methods to play.”
Alexander-Walker was chosen seventeenth total by the Brooklyn Nets within the 2019 NBA Draft. Inside two weeks, his draft rights have been traded to the Atlanta Hawks, alongside Allen Crabbe and draft concerns for Taurean Prince.
He was then instantly traded to the New Orleans Pelicans, the place he signed his first NBA contract the subsequent day.
Alexander-Walker spent the higher a part of three seasons in New Orleans earlier than being traded to the Portland Path Blazers on February 8, 2022, in a multiplayer deal involving a number of draft picks.
A day later, Alexander-Walker was traded once more, this time to the Utah Jazz as a part of a three-team commerce. Lastly, Alexander-Walker and Mike Conley Jr. have been traded to Minnesota in a three-team commerce with the Los Angeles Lakers on February 9, 2023.
“Fortunately, I have been on groups early on that had a purpose of profitable, that had a purpose of creating the playoffs, and so it is by no means been simpler, the place you possibly can simply play with out expectations, as a result of that they are not. I plan to be good for years to return,” he stated of bouncing from group to group so typically throughout his NBA profession. “I feel that’s why I discovered to be versatile.”
He needed to modify once more when the Timberwolves dealt Karl-Anthony Cities to the New York Knicks for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and a first-round draft decide in early October, simply earlier than the beginning of this season.
“One factor it taught me is to be extra environment friendly with my pictures, to take the proper pictures, to seek out my place, to play much more with out the ball, as a result of we’ve guys who can go down,” Alexander-Walker stated. “We’ve got guys who can shoot and Donte is a risk, so along with his taking pictures skill and the way onerous he performs, I feel it allowed me to arrange for a wide range of seems, catches and shoot threes, lower, push the rhythm.
“These are issues from that commerce: The best way to be more practical, as a result of now you not solely have myself supporting Mike (Conley), but additionally Donte and what these minutes appear like once we play collectively.”
He averaged 8.3 factors, 2.3 rebounds and a pair of.2 assists per sport throughout his profession, however noticed an uptick after 14 video games this season with 8.8 factors, 2.6 rebounds and a pair of.6 assists per sport.
Trying again to his youth enjoying with Gilgeous-Alexander, Alexander-Walker looks like he has all the time been in a position to tackle totally different roles on any basketball group.
“I really feel like I am prepared for right now’s NBA and what it seems like, particularly when you have got guys like Victor Wembanyama, like Chet Holmgren, Naz Reid,” he stated. “It’s a sport the place you don’t need to be restricted to only one sort of place.
“I feel by engaged on my sport, taking the proper steps each day, like I do, and that technique of constructing the participant that I will be, after which additionally the participant that I’m right now, I feel that I’m placing myself able to be efficient for my group.
Alexander-Walker and the Timberwolves go to the Toronto Raptors on Thursday and he’s excited to play in entrance of his hometown crowd.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed November 20, 2024.
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John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press
