Orlando Magic 2019 NBA Draft Preview: Nickeil Alexander-Walker is a high-IQ player with physical limitations

Weaknesses

Self-Shot Creation

If there is an area where Nickeil Alexander-Walker struggles, it is his shot-creation ability.

A lot of factors contribute to this struggle for Alexander-Walker. First and foremost, his previously mentioned lack of explosion does not allow him to beat defenders off of raw speed very often. This leads to some plays where Alexander-Walker has to put up some very tough shots.

Here is an example:

The off-ball screen creates some initial separation for Alexander-Walker. But his speed does not allow him to get a straight line drive to the basket. The defender is able to recover to force Alexander-Walker into a tough shot.

This struggle translates into his jump shot as well:

Here Alexander-Walker hits the defender with a quick crossover into a jumper. The crossover did not create very much space and Alexander-Walker puts up a heavily contested jump shot that misses badly.

While Alexander-Walker is undoubtedly an excellent catch-and-shoot option, his jump shot off the dribble can be very off.

The good news is that Alexander-Walker tends to play within himself and not try and make plays that he is not capable of.

Inconsistent reads as playmaker

While Alexander-Walker showed significant growth as a playmaker this year he is still developing. There are some passes that Alexander-Walker makes that are head scratching.

In this clip, Alexander-Walker does an excellent job of drawing multiple defenders to him. But instead of hitting the wide open guy who flared to the corner, he throws up a heavily contested floater.

Granted, this play was at the beginning of the season, prior to his exposure to the point guard position but this is an issue.

In this clip Alexander-Walker just does not see the defense:

In this play, Alexander-Walker picks up his dribble prematurely because he believes he has found the open man in the opposite corner. But what Alexander-Walker does not account for is the wide open teammate of his on the opposite wing. The additional “hidden” Purdue Boilermakers player makes an easy steal off a very poor read from Alexander-Walker.

Alexander-Walker is also prone to poor passes and commits preventable turnovers, especially while on the move.

The next clip shows where Alexander-Walker is still developing as a PnR passer:

There are a couple of things to point out in this clip.

The first being Alexander-Walker picks up his dribble one dribble too early. If he took another step into the paint and made the defense completely collapse, the read he would make would be a lot easier to diagnose.

More importantly, Alexander-Walker just makes the wrong read. If Alexnader-Walker had let the play develop a little more, his teammate at the wing would have been wide open. But Alexander-Walker tries to sling a pass to the corner that is tipped by the defender and could easily have been stolen by the other defender who read that pass.

Alexander-Walker has utility as a playmaker, but it is certainly something that will require more development going forward.