Celtics waive Lonnie Walker IV

The Celtics waived Lonnie Walker IV today after he signed an Exhibit 10 contract this offseason. Walker can now go to the G-League and join the Maine Celtics or sign with another team.

In four games with the Celtics this preseason, Lonnie Walker averaged 7.3 points, 2.5 assists, 1.5 rebounds, shooting 42.8% from the field and 31.2% from three-point range.

When asked about Walker, Derrick White, who was a teammate with Walker in San Antonio, said, “Great guy. Works hard. You could tell he has a lot of passion. Thats my guy obviously.”

Luke Kornet said after practice, “I love Lonnie. He’s a great player. His energy, joy, and passion…I never got the opportunity to know him closely until these past few weeks and he’s been great to have around. A joy to play with and a joy to work with.”

Joe Mazzulla was also asked about Walker being waived. Mazzulla said, “he came in with his head down and just wanted to work and to have an understanding of what it’s like playing our style of basketball.” He continued, “I thought he did a good job of executing that in the time that he had, I thought he did a great job being patient, executing the role we needed him to.”

When asked about making roster decisions with Brad Stevens, Mazzulla added, “we talk every day, we communicate every day, not necessarily collaborate on the decision, but collaborate on the opportunities and the things that are there on either side of the coin. At the end of the day, he does a great job making decisions, we trust our decision, and we do communicate every day about where we think things are and we go from there.”

The writing was seemingly on the wall for Walker as he didn’t play in the Celtics final preseason game on Tuesday against the Raptors, but people were holding out hope that he could still find his way on to the roster. However, the Celtics decided to waive him, leaving the 15th roster spot open.

The Celtics essentially save $11 million by waiving Walker as that’s how much Boston would have to pay if they signed him to a veteran minimum contract. The Celtics currently have a tax multiplier of $3.75 for every $1 they spend over the salary cap. If they signed Walker, the multiplier would be pushed to $4.25 for every $1 and a veteran minimum contract of about $2.1 million would have about an extra $8.8 million in taxes added to it.

Personally, I feel like the Celtics should have signed Walker. He is a proven role player in the NBA and has had success contributing to a playoff team in the past. The Celtics could bring him up at some point during the season if he decides to join the Maine Celtics, but it still would have been nice to have him on the team now. Boston is already spending a quarter of a billion dollars on player salaries this season so you would think it wouldn’t be a problem if they added a little more for Walker, but I guess Celtics ownership didn’t see it that way.

Lonnie Walker is a very good player in this league and it would not shock me if he signs with another team shortly after being waived by the Celtics. If he does join Maine however, he would be joining a pretty stacked team and could be the face of one of the best G League teams on paper.

Hopefully, we can see Lonnie Walker in Boston again at some point this season weather as a member of the Celtics or for another team. Either way, I hope he gets another shot to show what he can do.