The Timberwolves trailed Denver 116-109 with just more than two minutes to play in an early November contest when Minnesota coach Chris Finch called the number of … Nickeil Alexander-Walker?
An unlikely choice, but the correct one. An action ending in a flare screen for the guard resulted in a drilled triple, perhaps the key shot of the game that sparked Minnesota’s come-from-behind victory over the Nuggets.
Never in the past would anyone expect Alexander-Walker to be the target of an after-timeout action.
“In the fourth especially, it means a lot. Me and Finchy come a long way. I’ll take anything I can get,” Alexander-Walker said after the game. “For me, it was definitely a moment, you know? Like a passing of the torch or something, like we transcended into another level of our relationship. At the end of the day, it was just about winning, as well. I knew Ant was going to trust me, and my teammates were going to trust me. So for me it was trust the work and knock it down.”
What may have been even more impressive was the shot Alexander-Walker hit a minute earlier in the contest. The Wolves were down 10 at the time, and the game was really slipping away. Nothing was going right for Minnesota as Denver dominated the final frame to pull away.
Alexander-Walker himself was 0 for 4 from the field at the time, including a pair of misses during that disastrous fourth. But Edwards was forced to kick to the guard after Denver helped heavily to stop Edwards’ drive.
Alexander-Walker caught the pass, pumped, took a side dribble and fired.
Bucket – his first of the evening at the most opportune time.
He hit another massive triple to tie the game in the closing minutes of regulation Friday in Sacramento. He’s now 3 for 3 from the field in “clutch” situations this season.
Past failure will no longer deter future success. Alexander-Walker won’t allow it to. Not anymore.
Alexander-Walker was the No. 17 pick in the 2017 draft. He spent his first two and a half seasons in New Orleans. Then, at the 2022 trade deadline, Alexander-Walker was sent to Utah. The uncertainty was frightening. The entire ordeal was a wake-up call. Young players don’t get dealt if things are going according to plan.
Something, Alexander-Walker thought, needed to change to get his career on track.
“Something inside of me felt like, ‘OK, I need to change who I am.’ Because the things I was doing were very inconsistent. And I was like, ‘What’s one way for me to become more consistent mentally?’ And that was one of the things that came up was my approach,” he said. “There were things that I didn’t like. And I’ve always been very cognizant of myself. So I think that I was aware of where I struggled as a human. And then, for me, it was like, ‘How do I be the best human I can be? How do I leave it all in God’s hands?’”
The immediate answer was routine and preparation. Alexander-Walker had so much to learn in Utah – a new system, new teammates and coaches. He found comfort in a daily routine. He could trust the work he could put in on a daily basis.
It didn’t lead to immediate playing time with the Jazz. And, at that point, that frustrated Alexander-Walker, but he received a key assurance from then-Jazz teammate Mike Conley, who was fully aware that Alexander-Walker was showing up at 7 a.m. every day and putting in a full eight hours at the facility, filled with not just basketball, but stretching, yoga, mature habits usually only developed by much older veterans.
“I was like, ‘Man, if you just keep doing what you’re doing … if you stay consistent like this, I guarantee you’re going to get an opportunity, and you’re going to take advantage of it,’” Conley said.
That opportunity finally came in Minnesota, when Alexander-Walker sprung onto the scene in the form of an elite perimeter defender during the 2023 postseason after Jaden McDaniels went down with a broken hand. Alexander-Walker rode that wave of momentum to a fantastic 2023-24 campaign and into the 2024 playoffs, where he specifically shined in a first-round sweep of Phoenix.
But things went off the rails to a degree in the West finals against Dallas. Alexander-Walker’s defensive impact was negated by the elite shot-making of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. His shot stopped falling. His minutes dipped.
The latter especially got into his head. Alexander-Walker didn’t want to do something that would get him pulled off the court. An overthinking player is rarely a good one.
“I’ve definitely seen myself, at times, conforming to a fear of what I did not want to happen,” Alexander-Walker said.
He exited the campaign on a low note.
“Was I helpful in the Dallas series?,” Alexander-Walker asked. “Probably not.”
There had to be a level of concern about how that would affect the psyche of someone like Alexander-Walker heading into the offseason and this fall. Conley noted his teammate is a perfectionist who “has a switch where he can get a temper really quick and get upset at himself.” Alexander-Walker himself noted he “hates” failure. And he did seem to let one bad thing snowball into another in the past.
But the guard’s superpower is his introspection. If he beats himself up, he recognizes it and searches for an antidote so as to not do so again the next time. He’s always attempting to evolve as a human. That starts up top. Alexander-Walker devours countless books, many of which center on mindset and approach. He gathers intel from all of them.
There was no point in dwelling on the “failure” of his performance in the Dallas series. Instead, it needed to be used as a learning opportunity.
“But those are lessons for me to be a better player. Like I had to go through those things, and I can’t avoid that,” Alexander-Walker said. “But if I look at it with the output of, ‘Oh, this is something to grow from, this is something to invite, this is something to celebrate, to have hope,’ because that means there’s areas of improvement, that means I can find a solution, that means there’s going to be an end to days like this. So you’ve got to have that shifted perspective about it. Because, ultimately, there is no success (without struggle), there is no sunshine without rain, all the cliches. It’s true.”
He learned he couldn’t worry about if a shot didn’t fall, if an opponent’s shot did or if his minute load wasn’t as high as he’d hoped it’d be. None of it is in his control. Only his preparation is. Failure will occur. He puts his trust in God and lives with any output.
“Honestly, it is that simple. Because it’s bigger than me. And I’ve been through enough. Everyone goes through their struggle and hardships in life to get to where they are,” he said. “You can’t look at it like, ‘Again? I’ve been doing this my whole life.’ Yeah, this is what’s getting you out of the mud. This is what’s making you strong. This is the sharpening of the knives. This kills of life that makes you determined when you’re 0 for 6 and you need that last shot in the last two minutes. Just small things like that, I would say, is what builds my character.”
You’re only able to do that when you possess a belief in yourself and the work you’ve put in. It didn’t always look like Alexander-Walker had it. He clearly does now.
Alexander-Walker noted he went into that Denver game free of worry. He trusts himself. He knows he can deliver – on both ends. He had to become a defensive stopper to earn consistent minutes, but he has made a point to remind himself that he’s also a good offensive player.
Recently, Alexander-Walker has watched old games where he scored at a high rate. He said that his baby son “loves” watching basketball. And the guard joked that dad has to be his son’s favorite player, so he sure as heck isn’t going to put on a game where he simply stands in the corner. But those games are reminders of his ability.
“The course of my career took me this route, but that doesn’t mean I’m not capable of doing things. I’ve scored 30 points multiple times in this league, I’ve stepped up when I needed to,” Alexander-Walker said. “I had to kind of remind myself who I am a little bit and just trust that. I know I’ve been getting better because I’ve worked too hard not to.”
He noted the ideal mental state on the floor is when you’re “overfilled with the moment.” You’re not thinking about anything, but merely reacting on instincts ingrained through thousands of practice repetitions.
In those moments, all doubt is removed. That much is evident when he pulls the trigger on a shot in a key situation, without an inkling of hesitation. Positive results have followed.
A fearless Nickeil Alexander-Walker is the best Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
“One-hundred percent, because the most scary person is the person who doesn’t have anything to lose, right?” he said. “You always fear that person, because they’re liable to do anything. And in those moments, it’s liberating, it’s free. When you let go of those moments that hold you back, you kind of face them (head on). For me, it’s just a mentality of doing that day in and day out.”
Alexander-Walker is far from a finished product, both physically and mentally.
“You’re never arriving,” he said. “You’re always becoming.”
There will still be times when he is afraid. He welcomes those, as well. He’s allowed to be human. The uncomfortable moments are when you grow out of your shell and continue the process of evolution.
His goal is to become as mentally clear as possible.
“To find a way to take off all the lids and to become, my trainer says this, ‘Unlocked,’” Alexander-Walker said. “To untap a lot of the potential that’s in me.”
That work is ongoing, but Alexander-Walker is confident of this: He’s now built to endure.
“I can really feel the trust in my work and the trust that I have and my faith in God,” he said. “Each day is consistent for me. It’s probably the most focused and driven I’ve been in my life for a bigger purpose outside of myself and my family.”
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