Toronto Raptors<\/a> wing had picked up enough to calculate what it was going to take for him to earn a steady role in the NBA. The most significant part of the equation starts with forcing opposing ball-handlers into low-percentage situations. It\u2019s been a recurring theme this season, the latest example coming in the Raptors’ win over the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night.<\/p>\nBut it\u2019s not like playing sticky on-ball defence is a new concept for him.<\/p>\n
As a McDonald\u2019s All-American coming out of high school, his status as a willing two-way player was one of the elements that made him a top 10 recruit heading to Baylor for his one year of university basketball. He was also the Raptors’ preferred choice with the 19th overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft.<\/p>\n
Playing defence wasn\u2019t optional growing up. His father, Eddie Walter, was a successful college player who demanded that defence be part of his son\u2019s basketball repertoire. But as Walter developed into one of the top high-school players in the country, his ability to put the ball in the basket was inevitably front and centre. He led Baylor in scoring as a freshman.<\/p>\n
But for all but a select few, finding a niche at the NBA level means identifying a key skill and excelling at it, with scoring rarely being that niche. It hasn\u2019t taken Walter long to figure out what that would mean for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always a defender, but I didn’t know I was going to be aiming towards being the main guy,\u201d he told me in a recent conversation. \u201cWhen I got here, they were telling me that they see the length and tools that I have, and just make sure I use them all the time. When I got to Toronto is when I really started focusing and realizing that I wanted to be the stopper type guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s got plenty of teammates who will vouch for his abilities to do just that.<\/p>\n
There aren\u2019t many practice days that go by where Walter and Immanuel Quickley don\u2019t play one-on-one against each other in some shape or form.<\/p>\n
And the six-year veteran appreciates it. \u201cHe’s one of the better people that guards me, for sure,\u201d said Quickley. \u201cHe makes me better. I know what it’s like to go against him: he doesn’t go for a lot of fakes, he\u2019s got active hands, he\u2019s very physical, and he’s athletic. But part of it’s just mentality. He’s a dog.”<\/p>\n
Agreed, says Brandon Ingram, who might have height, length and eight years of additional NBA experience on his younger teammate, but still finds him a tough puzzle to crack when they match up.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the defensive side of the basketball, he\u2019s aggressive,\u201d says Ingram. \u201cWith his on-ball, his defence, he makes guys not want to dribble the basketball. We actually kind of went at it in practice the other day, where he was actually kind of getting into my shit, playing defence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely think he has that mentality every single time he steps on the floor. He has high character. Whenever he comes on the floor, he wants to do the best he can. He\u2019s willing to learn. He gets better every single game. Overall, I think he\u2019s going to be a good pro, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sooner the better, as far as the Raptors are concerned.<\/p>\n
There is a window for a more consistent role in what will likely end up being a nine-man rotation once the playoffs come into view, now that the Raptors have traded Ochai Agbaji. It\u2019s likely going to come down to one of Gradey Dick and Walter.<\/p>\n
Walter\u2019s willingness to dig in defensively against tough covers \u2013 he\u2019s given the likes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Donovan Mitchell and Jamal Murray fits at various points this season — could give him the edge. Rather than head somewhere for a sun vacation over the all-star break, Walter went home to spend time with family and work out.<\/p>\n
How big the role becomes will likely come down to his ability to make open threes. He\u2019s shown a good instinct for cutting and scoring in transition, but being able to space to the corners, the wing and force defences to play him as a shooter could tip the balance. Ingram thinks Walter is ready on that end, too. The Raptors’ leading scorer didn\u2019t hesitate to find Walter wide-open in the corner with a laser pass at a critical moment in the fourth quarter of Toronto\u2019s win over Chicago on Thursday. Walter nailed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny. I saw Ja\u2019Kobe pass up a jumper earlier in the game, and I\u2019m always telling him to shoot because he\u2019s one of the best shooters on our team,\u201d said Ingram. \u201cI just told him once [Thursday], and he started to shoot the basketball. He shot it with confidence at an important time of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, Walter looked exceptionally sharp in the Raptors’ win Thursday, logging three steals and two deflections along with 14 points on nine shots in 22 minutes off the bench, treating Bulls ball-handlers like he does his teammates in post-practice one-on-one battles. He made two of his five three-point attempts and is at 35 per cent from three for the season.<\/p>\n
Walter\u2019s output was noted:<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he played a very good game. I thought he did an outstanding job defensively. I thought he was in the right spots on offence, took the right shots,\u201d said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. \u201cThere is a growing confidence inside this group that he\u2019s ready for this challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Creating chaos defensively is his entry point for bigger opportunities and has become something Walter’s fully bought into, and he\u2019s come to enjoy, even if it makes opponents miserable. He enjoys frustrating people \u2013 teammates and opponents alike. He\u2019ll get another chance when the Raptors visit the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday.<\/p>\n
If anyone gets irritated with him, so be it.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor real,\u201d said Walter. \u201cMe and \u2018Mal [Jamal Shead] talk about it all the time. When you get into players, and they start [getting frustrated], it just kind of gets you going, knowing that they don\u2019t want the ball. That\u2019s just something that excites me, knowing that they don\u2019t want the ball around me.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a formula that could pave the way for long-term NBA success. Walter had more than enough math in high school to figure that one out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It runs in the family, though he is decidedly not the best at math in his family. His…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,6,681,680,476,3820],"class_list":{"0":"post-614699","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-raptors","11":"tag-toronto","12":"tag-toronto-raptors","13":"tag-torontoraptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116105663438924671","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}