Nickeil Alexander-Walker finds an expanded role after leaving Timberwolves for Hawks

ATLANTA – Nickeil Alexander-Walker waited outside the Timberwolves locker room Wednesday afternoon with his young son in hand.

Alexander-Walker’s Atlanta Hawks had just beaten his former team 126-102 in their first meeting since the standout guard signed as a free agent last offseason.

A couple Wolves staffers came by to hold the child as Alexander-Walker greeted a lot of people — players, coaches and staff — from the team with which he resurrected his career.

Smiles were all around, even as Alexander-Walker winced and said it was “weird” to face his old team.

“But it felt good,” Alexander-Walker told the Minnesota Star Tribune. “Just the flow of the game and how things were happening, I was enjoying it.”

Those that have followed Alexander-Walker’s time in the NBA know that enjoying the game has not always come easy for him. There were frustrating times in New Orleans that he wasn’t developing as fast as he and the Pelicans organization thought he could, and he was hard on himself for not becoming right away the kind of player who lived up to the billing as the 17th overall pick in 2019.

He went to Utah, where his career was in the wilderness, and he wasn’t playing with a tanking Jazz franchise, which eventually sent him to Minnesota in February 2023.

But a funny thing has happened to Alexander-Walker in Atlanta: He has taken on an expanded role as a scorer, playmaker, doing the type of things he was doing in New Orleans — and he is excelling.

He is averaging 20.6 points per game after 9.4 last season with the Wolves. He is taking more than double the shots per game (15.7 to 7.5) and he has shot a very good 38% from three-point range on a high volume of threes per game (7.8).

“I didn’t fully anticipate this,” Alexander-Walker said. “I didn’t know when or how it would look like. But I did believe I was capable and with what’s been happening, I was just being aggressive, trying to be the best version of myself and play to the best of my capabilities.”

Not only was there an expanded opportunity for Alexander-Walker in Atlanta to start, but Trae Young’s absence for most of the season — the All-Star point guard has played only 10 games because of knee and quad injuries — allowed him to thrive even more as a starter. Alexander-Walker’s performance and how the Hawks have played with Young out may even be playing a role in the franchise making Young available on the trade market this February.

There is a path forward potentially with that version of the Hawks, as Jalen Johnson has taken a leap as well in their starting lineup.

“It was something he I and talked about this summer,” Snyder said. “He hasn’t lost the essence of who he is as a player, which to me, that is the leadership, that is the defense, but we also felt that he could shoot the ball. So the fact that his volume is up is a big point of emphasis for him, to shoot when he’s open.

“He knows when shots are coming, which has allowed to be even more confident, definitive and decisive.”

Confidence wasn’t always in such high supply for Alexander-Walker, especially when he first came to the Wolves. At first, he didn’t know if his NBA career might be over after joining the team, with free agency coming up in the summer of 2023. And he could always be hard on himself to that point it might affect his confidence. But he worked on his mental health and that carried over to his play.

“Honestly, it’s like the foundation to where I am,” Alexander-Walker said of his Wolves years. “It’s what’s gotten me on the floor, in clutch situations and given me confidence as a player. What winning takes defensively, offensively. We faced some adversity at different times, but was able to came out winning.”

He and the Hawks have faced some adversity, as rumors swirl about Young’s future and the team recently lost seven i, which prompted Alexander-Walker to call for a team meeting after a recent loss to the Knicks.

Alexander-Walker’s career has come full circle since the time he played under Finch as an assistant in New Orleans. Finch saw the struggles the cousin of league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had finding himself in the NBA, and it was that experience that helped the two of them figure out his role with the Wolves.

Seeing all the hugs and smiles Alexander-Walker exchanged with his old team this week, you could see how happy everyone is for him.

“It’s been great. Great to watch for him,” Finch said. “We certainly benefited from a lot of his good play. We miss him. We miss that high level of competitiveness every night, the consistency that he brought.”

Because of that, Alexander-Walker became a fan favorite with the Wolves, someone who, no matter if the shots were falling, was going to give his all every night. That hasn’t changed, even now as he is taking more shots and more are going in, in a way only he could have imagined a few seasons ago.