3 most overrated players currently on the Los Angeles Lakers roster
By Jason Reed
1. Lonnie Walker IV
This is painful to say because Lonnie Walker IV has been one of the bright spots of the Los Angeles Lakers’ season thus far. Signed with the Taxpayer’s MLE in the offseason, Walker came to the Lakers and instantly looked better than he was in San Antonio. It looked like the Lakers found yet another underutilized young player that had more potential than pundits believed.
His overall numbers are extremely positive as well. Walker is averaging 15.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game while shooting 47.1% from the field and 39.7% from three. If you are just looking at the box scores, you would see a highly impactful role-player.
Even watching the games, Walker has moments where it looks like there is an even higher ceiling for him to break through with the Los Angeles Lakers. To call him the most overrated player on the Lakers might seem like a crazy statement with this in mind.
And to be clear: this is not to say that Walker is a bad player. But when you take a deeper look beneath the numbers you see some unsettling things that indicate that Walker might not be contributing to winning basketball like Lakers fans think he is.
The advanced numbers are not great as Walker is in the negative in both Offensive Box Plus/Minus and Defensive Box Plus/Minus, making him a below-average player in both areas. Other advanced statistics tell the same story. Walker has a -19.05 Total Points Added this season. According to NBA Math, that makes him the 66th-ranked player among 98 players with 800 minutes played.
The most telling numbers are the on/off numbers, though. The Los Angeles Lakers’ net rating is seven points worse when Walker is on the court versus when he is off the court. Just to put that into perspective, a net rating difference of seven points is larger than the difference between the top team in the league (Cleveland Cavaliers) and the 16th-ranked team (Los Angeles Clippers).
As good as the traditional numbers are, the Lakers have been far worse with Walker on the floor this season. He has posted a positive plus/minus in only nine of his 28 games played.