Determination fuels Nickeil Alexander-Walker's breakout with Hawks

You never know who’s watching. 

It’s the kind of comment that NBA players hear when they find themselves at a low point, when their performance is suffering or their playing time is waning, and the path to carving out a meaningful career only seems to be getting thornier. 

Most of the time — frankly — they are hollow words. The math is the math, and after a certain point, the window closes on a player. The NBA as a whole loses interest, preferring to use precious roster spots and playing time on another prospect, a different project. 

But the potential for a self-fulfilling prophecy is real. If a player falls prey to the human tendency of believing their situation is untenable and allows their attitude, work ethic or attention to detail to slip even marginally, it becomes justification for an organization to move on. 

But if you can fight through it and maintain commitment to a high standard, even with no guarantee of results, sometimes that’s enough to see you through to the other side. 

Nickeil Alexander-Walker knows it and has lived it. 

And seven years into his roller-coaster of an NBA career that has taken him through six organizations and multiple roles, he is thriving now because he never let his determination waver, even if there wasn’t always the proof that teams shared his own belief. 

The Canadian national team stalwart signed with the Atlanta Hawks this past summer on a four-year deal for $60.6 million that Alexander-Walker’s previous team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, couldn’t match. 

Alexander-Walker has rewarded the Hawks’ faith in him by playing the best basketball of his career. After putting up 31 points against his hometown Toronto Raptors on Saturday night, Alexander-Walker heads into the second of the two-game set on Monday averaging 20.7 points per game for the Hawks, more than double his career average of 9.6. His assist, rebound and steal totals are also career marks, and even though his usage rate is a career-high (25.1 per cent), his efficiency hasn’t suffered. His 58.9 True Shooting mark is another career best. 

Alexander-Walker attributes his jump — which will surely earn him consideration for the NBA’s most improved player award — to how he carried himself during what was arguably his lowest point: when he was traded from New Orleans to Portland to Utah in the space of 36 hours in February 2022, and he spent the last two months of the 2022-23 season mostly sitting on then Jazz head coach Quinn Snyder’s bench. 

There were some long nights and plenty of doubts, but rather than let his circumstances dictate his approach, Alexander-Walker doubled down, determined to be ready if and when opportunity would knock. 

“I think that trade to Utah. I think now I'm starting to reap a little bit of professionalism from that approach,” he said after Saturday’s game and before heading out into the bowls at Scotiabank Arena to greet a waiting throng of family and friends. “You know, when I got there, it kicked into hyperdrive who I was and who I am today. And I think slowly, I started building on that, and now it's starting to just really take off.”

And there was someone watching: Snyder, who is now the Hawks' head coach after leaving Utah following the 2021-22 season. He had been impressed by Alexander-Walker in the few months they spent together in Salt Lake City, it turns out. 

“Nickeil and I weren't together for a long time,” said Snyder. “But you don't have to be with a player for a long time to get a feel for who they are and what they can do. And since the time that we were in Utah together, I've watched him a lot and seen how he's evolved defensively and shooting the ball. And I think there was kind of an instinct that he had where he could continue to be more aggressive in other parts of his game …

“Sometimes in order to improve, you have to go through some adversity,” said Snyder. “And his focus during those times (was noticeable). … We saw how he worked.”

It’s been a theme in Alexander-Walker’s career. 

He was a small piece in the Timberwolves’ trade with Utah in 2023 that delivered Mike Conley to Minnesota. But it was there that Alexander-Walker found his first NBA niche as a big guard who could handle significant defensive assignments, help the offence keep rolling on the second unit and start when needed. 

What helped him make that transition? Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch, who was an assistant coach with New Orleans during Alexander-Walker’s rookie season with the Pelicans and saw something as yet untapped in the former 17th-overall pick. 

“He’s got really good size, he’s very smart, and now he’s putting the pieces together, like understanding game plan and his opponent’s tendencies and stuff like that,” said Finch more than three years ago now. “It's crazy when you think that Nickeil has played for six coaches in four years … so, he just needs to be able to be out there. We’ll put our arms around him and keep encouraging him, and I think he’s going to be a really good player in this league.”

Anyone who knew Alexander-Walker agreed. Raptors wing RJ Barrett grew up with Alexander-Walker and his cousin, Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The talent was never in doubt.

“He's been one of the most skilled players I've grown up playing against,” said Barrett, who teamed with Alexander-Walker at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2023 and the Paris Olympics in 2024. “And I think when you work out with your cousin, who's the MVP, probably, arguably, the best player in the world. I think, when you work out with that guy every day, I think you’re going to be all right at some point, you know?

“But it's great to see him come (to Atlanta) and get his opportunity. Every single place he's gone, he's got a lot better … he's getting his opportunity, and he's shining.”

His success this season and previously in Minnesota has made Alexander-Walker the type of veteran who can serve as a teaching point for an Atlanta team that remains one of the younger rosters in the NBA. His habits and professionalism served him well while he waited anxiously for his opportunity to materialize. Not only did his game continue to grow, but he was also earning a reputation as someone organizations could invest in, confident he'd do whatever it takes to deliver.

When first-year Hawks GM Onsi Saleh was deciding who to spend the Hawks' cap space on in free agency, he quickly zeroed in on Alexander-Walker. His confidence was bolstered by the rave reviews the six-foot-six combo guard had earned from those who saw how he handled himself behind the scenes, even when the playing opportunities and roles fluctuated. 

“You take (a bunch) of cumulative things, and you put them all together, and the little things, the small little deeds, over time become big, when you add them all up,” Alexander-Walker said. “And I think for me, I've gotten really good at putting the small pieces together — from my circle, the guys that helped me out this summer, trainers, to guys on the team, being so welcoming to me and allowing me to step into this role, and cheering me on even — it's really more than just me going out there and putting up numbers, or even just working hard. It’s all of these things falling into place.”

It’s a set of traits that Snyder and others saw in Alexander-Walker earlier in the 27-year-old’s career, and the Hawks head coach is glad to have it on his team now in a bigger role.

“One of the biggest things he's given us is a voice, both on and off the court,” said Snyder, whose Hawks team enters Monday night’s game in 10th place in the East, 4.5 games behind the Raptors and trailing the season series 3-0. “Or just a level of professionalism, that he brings a work ethic, you know? All those ‘quote, unquote’ intangibles that I think make him a special player, and for a (young) team …  I think he's really a person that you'd want to play with to kind of teach you (about) really using that adversity to hone your craft and keep improving and not get too discouraged. 

“He has the ability to relate to a lot of people in different situations.”

Lesson 1? Approach your job like people are watching, because in the NBA, they often are. It’s just that it takes time to be fully seen. These days, Alexander-Walker is tough to miss.