John Wall, The 'Footballization' Of The NBA And The Wizards' Problem

Tom Brady is great but the biggest key to his success has been playing behind the best O-line in football! Give him the sorry excuse for a line that Peyton Manning and Roethlisberger play behind and then see how he does.

I also like the analysis of Wall’s quote about Rose. He’s speaking more to the clearly defined roles than merely suggesting that Rose has better players to work with.

However, this doesn’t excuse the fact that he can’t shoot a ten-footer to save his life!

When he streaks the length of the court and then throws that little wiggle in at the end while going top speed….that’s a guy no DB could cover. Unfortunately he is playing PG in the nba not WR.

Agree with so much of what you are saying….but still a ton of the problems we have result from the fact that John is not as good as we thought/hoped he would be. He may say it’s easy for Rose, but Derrick does things that John could do but for some reason doesnt. Case in point, just last night watching Rose lead a break, he let Noah and Gibson (possibly) get out in front of him on the wings…..rather than streaking by them at 100mph, the result was an easy assist for Rose and dunk for Noah when the defenders collapsed in on Rose as he drove towards the basket. Why cant John make that play? We have all sorts of guy who at the very least can and want to RUN…why does he insist on beating them all down court every time?

Obviously that’s just one little thing that wouldnt change our season….but I just dont understand why Wall isnt better than he is and I am loathe to put too much blame on his teamates (though obviously everything is tied together)

He’ll be ok. He definitely started the season off slow and got way better when he decided to stop forcing the game and let it come to him. As the article said with no playmakers around him it makes life difficult in DC. Hopefully sam can keep instilling confidence in wall to shoot bc his shot isnt as bad as advertised hes just never pulls it with comfort..personally i feel he’s a huge bright spot for our team and will get better with time. Sucks hes been appointed to save a franchise that hasnt even cleanned house to rebuild, the selfishness and negativity young and blatche still present on our team keep us doomed

is to stop being Grossman and turning the ball over. He is sort of like Bradford. His O-line is bad and the receivers are worse. Wall doesn’t even have the benefit of Jackson. He has to tuck the ball in Tebow style and carry the ball himself. I look at the Wiz and i see team with enough players to make a nice bench.

Let’s not rush to any conclusions this quickly. It sometimes takes 5 years for a young PG to learn the NBA game (Billups, Felton, Lowry…) and become comfortable playing with his teammates. And sometimes you have to take 1 step back before going 2 steps forward.

Thanks man, this was a great read.

I get confused sometimes by the idea of surrounding Wall with shooters, versus the players they already have. The questions here reflect certainly that: “Is Nick Young a spot-up shooter or a primary scorer? Is Rashard Lewis a spot-up shooter, or is he the small forward he once was in Seattle?”

Players like Young and Crawford, even Lewis, aren’t they supposed to be the shooters they are surrounding him with? Are they just not good/consistent enough at shooting the ball, or are they the wrong type of “shooter”? I know one huge problem this season has been missing a lot of wide-open looks, and that certainly hurts.

I have defended Wall here especially when I hear folks saying Rubio is better or Irving is better and things like that. I have offered the teammates angle as proof of this.

But I also think its easy to put it on teammates as well. A quality pg takes more command of the ball he can make the game easier for teammates I never buy and have never bought into the idea that a supersta can actually make a player better I think he can make the game easier for his teammates but can’t literally make a player better than his talent deems he is.

Wall to me gives the crawfords and Nick Young’s too much control of the ball on the floor. Nick Young became a more efective player last season coming off screens in catch and shoot situations but now he’s morphed back into the ball sticking blackhole he was a couple years ago.

He need to be looked off and told by Wall to give me the ball back go run off another screen.

Wall’s skill and undertanding of the game need major work.

Its why I wasn;t enamored with the highlight reel plays he was making on the summer circuit of charity games it doesn’t prepare you to be a better player its not NBA ball.

It was theorized he was gonna have a breakout season because he had his athleticism back. but thats not happened why because his skills still remain very raw and his understanding of the game is still very primitiive.

I watched Cp3 run the pick and roll the other night and the pace and patientnce and understanding he displayed we’re incredible then I watched some of the Wizards game I had on DVR again and its really quite shocking how little Wall understands about the pick and roll offense.

Wall doesn’t seem to understand that you have to come off very close to the guy setting the screen and engage the guy behind him more squared up and attacked that guy , instead wall barely accepts the screen then comes flying off with way too much pace giving the defender the ability to force him wide instead of down the middle at the right angle and almost always forces Wall to throw the ball straight back out over his shoulder.

Not sure why wall is allowed to do this by coaches over and over again alitle bit of film study and practice time you think would help with this.

This is where Sam Cassell isn’t the best coach for him Sam wasn’t great at the pick and roll either he looked to work his way into the mid range area so he could shoot it but wasn’t great at finding the angle either to compromise the integrity of the defense so I’m not certain Wall is getting the right level of coaching that would help him understand the pick and roll better.

Wall’s jumper and general finishing ability is very amateurish he has no touch inside the paint, is wildly out of control when he gets to the baskets his release pt often too low as he lunges off balance or drives past the rim and attempts to flip the ball back towards the basket.

these are things that can be cured with simple repetition. why is he not working hard enough at them.

and lastly his leadeship and demeanor its okay if he fusses at his teammates for making mistakes that are correctable on the fly get on guys but don’t let the frustration fester and be a brooding malcontent on the court thats so frustrated as if your game isn’t a contributing factor to why the team is struggling.

Let it out be encouraging be mad but stay engaged. He gets this funky little attitude that is all frustration and it affects his effort at times.

Be more of a student of the game recogize if Mcgee has an edge on his man downlow go to him don’t just force Young and Craw the ball say to the team look I think Mcgee can work his man we’re going there for awhile. Same with Booker when he has an edge even paint misses are better than long jumper misses that hurts floor balance.

be aware that sometimes the ball needs to go inside out.

Wall needs a strong headcoach that is good with pg’s and will stay on his case to make or break his understanding and work etic for the game.

thats why I believe Larry Brown would be the ideal coach he will break Wall down and enhance his understanding of the game with very very tough love.

…think of the Washington team from the perspective of the opposing team’s defensive coach. That is, they try to take the other team’s strong point.

With respect to the Wizards, there are only two offensive threats. Wall driving to the basket and Young shooting the long ball. It’s relatively easy to address these two things and make them much harder to succeed when all of the other players on the floor have offensive deficiencies.

Said another way, there needs to be three above average shooters on the floor. Wall and McGee are below average (but that’s okay given their other skills). Until that happens, judging Wall is premature.

according to hoopdata Wall’s assists leading to field goals at the rim are UP 0.3 / 40 min, on shots less than 15 feet (but not at rim) are even from last year, but is down 0.6 on long 2’s and down 0.3 on 3’s. Makes it seem like the lack of shooting has a lot to do with it.

I wish there was a way to see field goal percentage on shots that would be assists if made.

You guys see this?

@IamaGM: Wizards trying to trade Andray Blatche for Tyrus Thomas http://www.iamagm.com/news/2012/02/03/wizards.trying.trade.andray.blatche.tyrus.thomas

Another athletic, energy guy who can’t shoot (and is always hurt).