Nickeil Alexander-Walker Is Already Proving To Be One Of The Hawks' top free agent signings ever

The Atlanta Hawks got their biggest win of the season last night, defeating the Orlando Magic 124-112, and while star forward Jalen Johnson will always be the headliner, especially on a night where he had another triple double, the biggest star on the floor was Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker tallied a career-high 41 points on 12-21 shooting, including a career best nine makes from deep (9-14 3FGM), to go along with seven rebounds, five assists and two steals in 37 minutes of play. The Virginia Tech product secured his career-best 36th straight game scoring in double figures, marking his 63rd double-digit scoring outing of the season, tied for the third-most such games in the NBA and the most in a single season in his career.

Alexander-Walker spoke after the game about what it was like for him to see the progress he has been making this season come to life:

It's a little scary because it felt great. And, you know, you go through ups and downs in a season, so it's hard to not feel elated. I was texting my trainer, and I told him earlier, like, it just felt euphoric almost. And so it's hard to balance it. You know, a night like tonight, how important tonight was, this game. And then to have a game the way I did on the national team, it's like so many things. So, like, you take a step back, you appreciate it, and you say, like, thank you, God, just for giving me this opportunity and this moment. And then it's kind of like, all right, back to reality, kind of continue to do the same things.

Don't kind of fall for that trap like right now everyone's messaging me i'm amazing you know like parlays i probably hit up so everybody's just loving me until i miss the next three so it's just kind of like just just just ignore it embrace the feeling and the work that i put in for moments like these and to have these."

Best free agent signing?

I don't think that many around the league could have seen what was coming from Alexander-Walker this season. He is in the running for Most Improved Player in the NBA and is having the best season of his career. He is currently averaging 20.3 PPG, 3.7 APG, and 3.5 RPG while shooting 44% from the field and 38% from three.

When he was signed in the summer, it was looked at as one of the best signings of the offseason, but he was being cast as the Hawks sixth man behind the backcourt duo of Trae Young and Dyson Daniels, but when Young was injured early in the season and then later traded, he took a spot in the starting lineup and has not looked back. He has helped make the Hawks starting lineup one of the best in the NBA.

Atlanta's five-man lineup of CJ McCollum, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson, and Onyeka Okongwu has played 217 total minutes together across 20 games. Of all five-man lineups who have played 200+ minutes together this season, Atlanta's lineup of McCollum, Alexander-Walker, Daniels, Johnson, and Okongwu owns the best net rating (29.1), the best defensive rating (96.2), and the second-best offensive rating (125.3), per NBA.com/Stats. That group also owns a true shooting % of 62.6%, the third-best amongst all five-man lineups (min. 200 minutes).

I think Alexander-Walker has a case to be one of the Hawks best free agent signings ever, even before he has finished his first complete season with the team.

Looking back in the last 20-25 years, the one signing that the Hawks made stands out and that is when they signed Paul Millsap away from the Utah Jazz.

In his four seasons with the Hawks, Millsap averaged 17.4 PPG, 8.3 RPG, and 3.3 APG, as well as 2.4 blocks per game.

In every season with the Hawks, Millsap was an All-Star and helped lead the Hawks to one of the best seasons in franchise history. In 2014-2015, the Atlanta Hawks won 60 games and were the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, and he helped lead the Hawks to their first-ever appearance in the conference finals, where they were swept by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Not only was Millsap an All-Star in every season he was with the Hawks, but he finished in the top five for defensive player of the year in 2015-2016. He got the Hawks to the playoffs in every season.

While it might be too early to say that he the best ever free agent signing for the Hawks, he is working his way up the list and has the Hawks playing as well as any team in the NBA right now.