I’m back from my mini hiatus, and now we can actually go over NAW as a fit on the Atlanta Hawks as a player. This is actually who I’m most excited for as a Hawks player, he fills in the backup position we lost from Dre Hunter at the deadline and is a much better fit for what we had in LeVert however they do have different skill sets that improve the Hawks in different ways. Anyway please read the first two parts since they are extremely important before reading this next part. This is a series that is in chronological order.

I’m writing this in a tent after doing 50km of walking in a few days and I have 20km tomorrow and I needed something to think about other than being away from my family with no connection so I decided to get ahead and just write this part. No better time to use a tent analogy in a tent, your inner and outer is connected by hooks. Nickeil Alexander Walker is like the hooks that connect the tent together. He is key to allow the best and worst players in a roster to perform well within the gameplan. He is a connective 3&D player and what that would best correlate with is a connector on our groupings. So what makes NAW so good as a connector?

Nickeil Alexander is a wing/guard who improved mightily with the Wolves and was a a part of their back to back western conference finals run in the last couple years. Due to an excessive wage bill NAW was available on the market in a likely sign and trade which the Hawks capitalised on, losing LeVert to the Pistons and signing NAW as a replacement.

What makes him more valuable to the Hawks is how NAW is an effective defender and someone who is effective playing without the ball which is important in a Trae Young offence. What I am most impressed with is how he creates chaos as a player, he is active with his hands and although he isn’t the greatest stock producer his defensive tape shows off his actual talents. He has a long wingspan which allows him to be in passing lanes and get his hands on ball as well as be a consistent contester of shots. One situation NAW is most impressive and consistent in is when an opposing player gets downhill and drives into the paint, NAW is able to get his hands on the ball to prevent the player bring the ball up to layup or make a shot around the basket. Basically NAW is another POA defender to put around Trae int he backcourt or as a wing which is very important to put around this team. This makes Nickeil Alexander Walker a very valuable player to the defensive consistency as a whole but especially within the second rotation.

As an offensive player he is a super 3&D player with strong 3pt percentages over the last 2 years with the Wolves (>38%) which is great. General form he is a little wonky to me idk what I thinks off but it is a smooth motion and he is confident so doesn’t matter. This brings up a similar point it what I have made with KP and Kennard and that is spacing. Having 5 out lineup which the Hawks are setting up to be able to do extremely consistently across the season. I continue to stress the importance of this spacing aspect to improve Traes game as a small point guard. I’m not gonna explain it more than I have in past essays but I know some of yall got the mindset to understand why.

I’m at home, I have been for 4 weeks and I’m gonna go camp again and hike, more walking. Idk why I left part 3 so long but I did. Let’s finish this one.

So I called NAW a connector, one of the key parts of that is passing and playmaking and Nickeil is a good passer of the ball, he has on ball chops allowing him to bring the ball up the court and be your primary playmaker when called upon but also not someone I would want to trust a point guard role upon. But as a prospect out of Virginia Tech he was someone who had ability in the pick and roll and while maybe his game has changed as he has matured as an NBA player and he has less of a primary guard role than maybe he could have had, he has still shown he’s a creative and accurate passer of the ball especially driving to the rim. I believe the most interesting of this skill is interacting with a center in the dunker spot, how he interacted with Gobert specifically in the last two years has intrigued me but yeah he has playmaking ability.

His self creation has limited shows in recent times but when he does get to show it off he shows he can be an effective self creator for pull up jump shots and shows his versatility as a scoring option. He’s become an extremely polished player which is so great to see after the start to his NBA career.

I think we will call it there, NAW is a super addition and well deserved the money he is getting. Thanks for reading!
 A light surprise essay I hope you enjoy!