Lakers News: Lonnie Walker’s Injury May Be Worse Than We Initially Thought

Less-than-great news for LA's starting swingman.

Lonnie Walker IV, your Los Angeles Lakers' third-leading scorer, has missed the past three games (tonight's ongoing bout with the Miami Heat included) due to what the team has been calling mere "left knee soreness."

Now, first-year LA head coach Darvin Ham reveals that the issue may be a bit more of a lingering problem. Jovan Buha of The Athletic, Ham indicated that Walker is dealing with tendinitis in his knee. Ham suggests that the club is "bringing him along slow."

The language here is a bit unsettling. General soreness could be an overuse issue, but with tendinitis more specifically, that could be a more recurring, potentially chronic problem for the 6'4" wing.

Since inking a $6.5 million one-year mid-level exception with Los Angeles, the 24-year-old shooting guard/small forward has emerged as an integral part of this year's LA team.

Across his 32 healthy contests this season, Walker is averaging 14.7 points, the third-most on the team behind All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, with a .455/.384/.875 slash line. He is also chipping in 2.3 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 0.8 steals.

If he can fight through the tendinitis or at least not miss too many more games as a consequence of it, Walker seems likely to benefit from all this national TV exposure and capitalize with a longer-term contract next year as a free agent. Here's hoping he recovers swiftly!