2019 FIBA 3×3 Asia Cup Preview: Lucas Walker

Australian 3×3 men’s coach Dave Biwer wants Lucas Walker to bring his five-on-five intensity to the 3×3 court at this weekend’s FIBA Asia Cup.

Walker is replacing the injured Andrew Steel at the Asia Cup, after impressing with Stateside Sports during the recent NBL 3×3 Pro Hustle tour.

Despite being new to the format, Biwer says he has always been intrigued at how Walker would perform on the 3×3 court, which has him excited about what the NBL veteran will provide at the Asia Cup.

Biwer also explained what Walker’s strengths are in the traditional format, and how he needs to transport those attributes to the 3×3 game.

“We are trying to be bigger and his athleticism is something that I identified in him as a player 12 months ago,” Biwer said.

“We just couldn’t get him on the court for various reasons of commitments to the NBL and his location up in Cairns. We are just excited because from an actual basketball body point of view, he is perfect.

“Now what we want to see out of him is, he plays the game hard, he rebounds hard, he runs the floor hard, but in this game you don’t get to run the floor, so how are we going to have that same intensity that he shows when he is, what I call, feeding himself.

“He does a great job as a basketball player to feed himself, you don’t have to run sets for him. He will just run the floor and get baskets, he will put put backs in on the offensive glass, so we want all those same things but in the half-court game.”

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Walker will be teaming up with Tim Coenraad, Tom Wright and Greg Hire, the trio that helped Australia qualify for a World Cup berth two weeks ago.

Biwer says Walker’s challenge now will be matching the intensity those players bring, as any small lapse in concentration during 3×3 could be the difference between winning and losing.

“We want to see him match that intensity of the other guys, we can’t afford to have any switch offs, you got to play for 10 straight minutes,” Biwer said.

“Hopefully the intensity the other three bring will bring Waxy up to the level we want him at in terms of how hard we play the game.”

Australia’s 3×3 Asia Cup campaign begins on Friday at 7:20pm AEST.