The Philadelphia 76ers front office pulled off some very questionable moves in free agency, but there is definitely one thing they did right — putting a governor on the Lonnie Walker IV experience after only a brief stint with the franchise.
Last season, with the 76ers heavily afflicted by the Philly-obsessed injury bug, the 76ers went ahead and signed Walker to a non-guaranteed two-year contract which had a team option for the 2025-26 campaign. Ultimately, with Philly bringing in VJ Edgecombe and having a clear logjam in the backcourt, the front office declined to pick up his team option, leaving him in the vast expanse of the open market.
While Walker was one of the more popular low-cost free agents in the market stemming from last year, he eventually remained without a new NBA home. No team decided to pick him up, and now, he is on his way back to Europe, where he spent most of last season in.
However, the 27-year-old managed to lure a ball club abroad into handing him a huge deal — the degree of which he would not have gotten in the NBA, especially from the 76ers.
The 76ers avoid disaster as Lonnie Walker IV rakes in a huge payday
As reported by multiple outlets keeping up with developments in the Euroleague, Walker has inked a lucrative three-year, $10 million deal with Europe powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv, although his contract reportedly includes NBA-out clauses from 2025 to 2027.
Aside from logjam in the backcourt, the 76ers presumably parted with Walker due to his contract, where he was slated to earn around $2.9 million next season had the front office picked up his team option. At that time, the team was trying to keep Guerschon Yabusele, and the Quentin Grimes front was still in its initial stages.
Walker ended up getting more from his new team in Europe, and the 76ers front office is probably feeling a sense of relief with that revelation. Given his glaring issues with being consistent on both ends, even paying him $2.9 million would be a waste, especially since he would have just been buried in the depth chart given Philadelphia’s sterling backcourt rotation.
The Philadelphia 76ers ended up picking Lonnie Walker up as a mere half-season trial, but things clearly worked out for them in this regard. With this mini-chapter now closed, hopefully, the athletic guard can find a lot of success in Europe en route to an eventual return in the NBA.