Why Maccabi Tel Aviv Left Lonnie Walker Out of the Finals Roster

Maccabi Tel Aviv will open the first game of the championship series tonight, Tuesday at 20:00, on Sport5, without its most expensive player, Lonnie Walker. Coach Oded Katash confirmed Walker is medically fit, but chose to leave the scoring leader out of at least Game 1 for professional reasons.

The main issue is game shape. Walker missed the semifinal series against Holon and had scored 13 and 7 points in the two games against Beersheba. Maccabi also played well in the three games he missed in the previous round. Walker has said he wants to play and continue with the club in 2026/27.

Maccabi can register only five foreign players. Oshae Brissett and Jalen Hoard were locked in first, with Brissett giving the team 31 minutes in Game 2 against Holon and Hoard emerging as perhaps Maccabi’s best player right now. Hoard played 37 minutes in Game 1 against Holon and is averaging 20.6 points per playoff game. That left three spots, and the injury to Tamir Blatt created a serious problem at point guard, leading to the registrations of Iffe Lundberg and Jimmy Clark.

Lundberg has been one of the playoff standouts, averaging six assists and 1.6 turnovers. Clark has returned from injury, but he is seen as a better defender than Walker and a stronger thief of the ball, which could bother Hapoel Tel Aviv. He can also play both guard spots, and he had eight assists and one turnover against Holon. Katash is expected to use either Clark or Lundberg to run the offense, and they can also play together.

That leaves one remaining registration, and Katash used it on a center. Roman Sorkin is Maccabi’s only Israeli big man, especially with injuries to T.J. Leaf and Gur Lavi, and an extra frontcourt player could keep him fresher and add defense. Katash said before the series, “We will need big players,” which is why Maccabi added another center. Because of that roster balance, there was simply no room for Walker. He could still be switched into the foreign-player list later in the series, but for now his return does not depend only on him.