Nickeil Alexander-Walker was a true Timberwolves success story

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Something struck me as I walked through the Minnesota Timberwolves team store at Target Center before a game last season. The wall of jerseys included all of the usual suspects: Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert, Jaden McDaniels, Naz Reid.

Nothing surprising there. Team stores leaguewide always have the team’s biggest stars and most popular players well stocked to satisfy the demands of the masses.

Then one jersey caught my eye. On the bottom row of the wall was an entire rack of No. 9 jerseys with “ALEXANDER-WALKER” arched over the number in the same way Nickeil Alexander-Walker would contort his spine to navigate around a screen at the top of the 3-point arc. There must have been a dozen of them there waiting for purchase. And I wondered how many team stores around the NBA felt compelled to stock the eighth man’s jersey? How many teams got enough requests for a player averaging 9.4 points and 25 minutes per night that they stopped filling them on an order-by-order basis and just started making them in bulk?

It is the perfect way to describe what Alexander-Walker meant to this organization and this fan base in 2 1/2 seasons in Minnesota. Like the Timberwolves, Alexander-Walker experienced many a dark day in the early portion of his career. Like Timberwolves fans, he was looked over and discounted when he first arrived here, considered a throw-in in the trade that brought Mike Conley to the Wolves. Like the City of Hoops, which is nestled in the State of Hockey, Alexander-Walker just put his head down and kept working amid all the sneers and dismissals, emerging as an inspirational symbol for basketball’s renaissance in Minnesota.

That is why a somber tone followed the excitement of last weekend, when the Timberwolves locked up two critical components of last season’s run to the Western Conference finals by signing Julius Randle and Reid to long-term contracts totaling $225 million. As happy as Wolves fans were, especially for the folk hero that is Naz Reid, they knew that the moves came with a price. They knew that Alexander-Walker was going to have to go.

No more devilish smiles as he sized up a wilting Jamal Murray in the playoffs. No more “electric slides” as play-by-play announcer Michael Grady dubbed the side step 3-pointers that were NAW’s calling card.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker side-step corner 3, NAW is on fire pic.twitter.com/y2fXStoUuy

— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) February 14, 2024

No more interviews that turned into soul-baring introspection on his journey from the depths of disappointment in New Orleans to the heights of playoff triumph in Minnesota.

For someone who spent a relatively small amount of time with the Timberwolves, Alexander-Walker leaves a lasting legacy. Minnesotans love underdogs, the kinds of players who blossom here after being discarded elsewhere. NAW is certainly one of them.

Alexander-Walker agreed to terms on a four-year, $62 million contract with the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, a payday that priced him out of Minnesota. And it didn’t take long for the NAW tribute videos to spring up all over social media from Wolves fans thanking him for the memories, wishing he didn’t have to go, but cheering for his good fortune.

NAW & ORDER is the greatest show of all time! https://t.co/ScTrb73B6L pic.twitter.com/fr1A2qFgP8

— K👁🌲🐺🌲 (@Kgformvp211) May 9, 2024

Alexander-Walker leaves as one of the greatest development stories in Timberwolves history. He arrived as a seldom-used bench player in Utah, a combo guard who didn’t seem deft enough to handle the point but wasn’t consistent enough as a shooter to play the two. In reality, his contract was the biggest reason he was included in the deal, since he made enough money to help the Timberwolves, Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers pull off a three-team trade that sent D’Angelo Russell to the Lakers and got the Wolves the point guard they needed in Conley.

He knew that he was holding on to a spot in the league by his fingernails when he first got to Minnesota. He hoped that his familiarity with coach Chris Finch, who was on the staff in New Orleans when Alexander-Walker was drafted by the Pelicans in the first round in 2019, would at least give him a chance at some playing time.

Bouncing around from New Orleans to Portland to Utah and, finally, to Minnesota humbled him to the point that when he reunited with Finch he was willing to do anything it took to carve out a place for himself in the league. What everyone settled on was for Alexander-Walker to become a defensive demon on the perimeter whose ability to knock down clutch 3s prompted Edwards to offer a colorful description of the anatomical features required to take and make such big shots.

With no ego or pretense, NAW threw himself into the role. He embraced the label of defensive stopper, eschewing any designs on being the big-time scorer that he thought he was capable of being when he was drafted out of Virginia Tech. He hounded ballhandlers on the perimeter, the tip of the spear on a Wolves defense that was dominant in 2023-24 and still excellent last season.

He also hit 39 percent of his 3s in 2023-24 and 38 percent last season, making him the quintessential 3-and-D guy for a team that made the conference finals in each of the last two seasons. The more the Timberwolves relied on him, the more he seemed to rise to the occasion. He knew what it felt like to be the odd man out of the rotation, to be the disappointment. So when a team finally entrusted him, that responsibility did not weigh him down. It lifted him to the best basketball of his career.

He did not miss a game over the last two seasons, could step into the starting lineup when needed be and was adept at running the point and playing off the ball. On defense, he was a menace, guarding any guard or wing with his quick feet, Teflon slipping of screens and the hands of a ninja.

“I feel like this year is probably my best year in a lot of ways,” Alexander-Walker said after losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the conference finals. “Especially just with the way my career has gone. I would say it’s the most I’ve consistently played. It’s the most I’ve had the chance to consistently help the team win.”

Almost as important as his contributions on the court was the heart that was tattooed on his sleeve with the rest of his ink. Edwards is the face of the franchise. Gobert is the backbone and Conley the brains of the operation. McDaniels is the killer instinct. Alexander-Walker has been the team’s conscience.

While many players get in and out of media interviews as quickly and as boringly as possible, Alexander-Walker chewed on the questions he faced, ruminated on them and delivered long, thoughtful and introspective answers in good times and bad. He was constantly expressing gratitude for the faith the Timberwolves placed in him, an expression that dripped with genuineness because he knew what life was like at the end of the bench.

“Watching back some of these games, the good ones, the bad ones, as painful as it may be, getting close I think hurts more than never making it at all,” NAW said at his exit interview. “At least, you could’ve said, ‘What if I made it?’

“If you’re that close and you know you’re not accomplishing it but it’s right there, it makes me want to learn how to become a winner, and how to grow as a player. Where am I missing that ingredient? What can be applied?”

That was Nickeil in a nutshell: never bitter at his lack of opportunity early in his career, never blaming teammates for tough losses, like the blowout in Game 5 against OKC that ended the Wolves’ season. Always looking for ways he could be better and help his teammates more.

He wasn’t perfect, and he would be the first person to tell you that. He turned the ball over too often when he tried to play point guard. He could be streaky as a shooter, and slumps could linger because of how much thought Alexander-Walker puts into everything in his life. But he was a difference maker on the court and in the locker room for the Timberwolves.

Yes, the Wolves have some promising young players in Terrence Shannon Jr., Jaylen Clark and Rob Dillingham who are poised to take those 25 minutes a night and make their own marks. They are dynamic, hungry and intriguing players whom Finch said he will trust to hold down the fort now that Alexander-Walker is gone. The three of them may well be able to, in aggregate, make up for a lot of what NAW is taking with him to Atlanta. But they won’t be able to duplicate his spirit. They cannot recreate the frustration he felt in his first five years and the concern he had about slipping out of the league if things didn’t work out with the Timberwolves.

Alexander-Walker had no idea what his future held when he first arrived here. But through his diligence, humility and sweat equity, and through the time and energy poured into him by Finch and his coaching staff, he emerged as an essential piece of the Timberwolves puzzle and an unforgettable stitch in the team’s fabric.

He will be replaced in Minnesota. He will not be duplicated.

Walking around the Timberwolves team store last season, seeing his jersey for sale struck me as so interesting that I took a picture and held onto it for the right time. I saved it for a moment before a game in Dallas on Jan. 22. Alexander-Walker had gone 3 of 20 in the previous two games, losses to Cleveland and Memphis. He was in a bit of a funk and searching for a way to find his game.

I walked up to him at his locker and pulled out my phone. I showed him the picture of his jersey in the store and told him that I couldn’t remember seeing an eighth man’s jersey selling at volume in any other arena.

He smiled widely and pumped his fist, knowing full well that every bit of the love and support he received in Minnesota was earned.

When the Hawks come to Target Center next season and Alexander-Walker looks up into the crowd, he will surely see plenty of those No. 9s there waiting for him.

(Top photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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