Spurs assistant coach! Two-time All-Star Lewis, how do you evaluate his player career?

According to American journalist Michael Scotto, former NBA player Rashad Lewis has been appointed as a coach of the Players Development League by the Spurs, and his joining is seen as a strategic addition to the Spurs in player development, especially in developing young players.

It should be noted that in the summer league a month ago, Lewis assisted the Spurs as a visiting coach and coached Carter Bryant (the No. 14 pick in the first round of this year). The latter's evaluation of Lewis was: "I saw him play when I was a child, and it was really great to have him around."

The name of Lewis must be familiar with many old fans. He was the second round pick in 1998. His career began with the Seattle Supersonics and played for 9 seasons at the Supersonics. During the Supersonics, Lewis grew from a substitute rookie who averaged 7 minutes per game to an All-Star player. In his best seasons, he averaged 20+ per game for three consecutive years:

-04-05 season, averaged 20.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game

-05-06 season, averaged 20.1 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 steals per game

-06-07 season, averaged 22.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game

Among them, in 2005, Lewis not only selected for the All-Star for the first time in his career, but also led the team to the playoffs with Ray Allen. Unfortunately, he lost to the final champion Spurs 2-4 in the second round.

Lewis is 2.09 meters tall and plays as a power forward. He has an excellent body shape and beautiful shooting. He has a 9-year career in the Supersonics and can average 1.6 three-pointers with a shooting rate of 38.6%. In that era, big shooters like Lewis were very rare, and he was also one of the earliest top-level big shots. In the offseason in 2007, the Supersonics, which selected Durant, entered the reconstruction completely, and then Lewis signed and then joined the Magic with a 6-year, $118 million contract. Today, it is common for 100 million contracts in this era, but at that time, it was only the 100 million contract in history.

Lewis was 28 years old at that time and was still at the peak. His playing style was very suitable for the offensive system of Magic. Therefore, joining brought considerable improvements to Magic. He helped Magic in the first year and reached the second round, and in the second year (2009), he reached the finals again.

This year, Lewis is really not simple. In the Magic's finals journey, Lewis attended 24 games, averaged 19 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game, with a three-point shooting percentage of 39.4%, and a real shooting percentage of 57.0%.

Among them, against the Cavaliers led by the Eastern Conference Finals, Lewis averaged 18.3 points per game, with a three-point shooting percentage of up to 48.4% (15 of 31 shots in total). It can be said that it was precisely because of his existence that the 23 vs 24 finals that had been laid for a long time that the finals 23 vs 24 drama that was not staged.

However, it was also after 2009 that Lewis' form began to gradually decline. In the 2009-10 season, he averaged only 14.1 points per game. In the subsequent 10-11 season, his average score continued to drop to 11.7 points.

The discussion about him at that time was more about "high salary and low ability", and he received the second highest annual salary in the league after Kobe, but his performance was not even up to the All-Stars.

In the 2010-11 season, the Magic and the Wizards reached a deal. The Magic sent Lewis and got Arenas. Two 100 million yuan exchanged their bosses. Judging from the results, this transaction failed for both parties.

only talked about Lewis, who was only 28 games in the 2011-12 season due to a knee injury, averaged 7.8 points per game, and his three-point shooting percentage dropped to 23.9%. Due to his poor performance, Lewis was sent to the Hornets by the Wizards in the summer of 2012, and the Hornets then bought it out.

However, the NBA story belonging to Lewis did not end there. In the summer of 2012, Lewis joined the defending champion Heat with a two-year minimum salary, teamed up with the Big Three and former teammate Ray Allen, and then helped the Heat reach the Finals for two consecutive years and completed two consecutive championships in 2013.

It is worth mentioning that in the 2014 playoffs, Lewis still maintained a good level, with a total of 18 games, averaged 17.7 minutes per game, scored 5.3 points, and a three-point shooting percentage of 37.3%.

After the end of this year, Lewis joined the Mavericks with a minimum salary of 1.4 million yuan a year, but during the physical examination, he found that Lewis had a knee injury and had to undergo surgery, so the Mavericks terminated the signing, and Lewis' NBA career ended.

For Lewis, several of our impressions are: big shooters, all-star players, and Mr. Billion Yuan. From now on, he is a player with a very advanced style of play. If he were in this era, he might have achieved higher achievements.

After his NBA career, Lewis did not leave the stadium. In 2017, he joined the BIG3 League and has been in 2023. During this period, he also won the BIG3 League MVP.

In addition, in the 2022-23 season, Lewis also worked as an assistant coach at the Detroit Pistons. Joining the Spurs this time also shows that Lewis is continuing to move forward in his "assistant coaching career". I hope his joining can help the young players of the Spurs. See you next season.