FanPost

Bradley Beal Apprehiation Thread




Our 19 year old rookie 3rd pick in the draft has really turned the corner after only 28 games in the league. I was sold on Beal as the player I wanted the Wizards to draft from the first time I read up on him on DraftX and I saw him interviewed. After years of watching the likes of Nick, McGee and Dray, Beal's personality and maturity stood out like a sore thumb. We needed a SG and this kid screamed "Perfect Fit" and boy does it look like that is true. Ted/EG did a good job in the draft to get him. And remember, getting him didn't seem like a sure thing.

January number so fair.

37 min, .478 FG, .605% 3FG, 3.6 RBs, 3.4 ASTs, 19.2 Pts

I personally didn't agree with putting the young Beal out there as a starter given who the team had healthy. Talk about throwing a young player into the deep end of the pool. Price was not ready to start at PG, Trevor A is best as defensive SF who is a 3rd option support scorer. Booker was still injured and is really a 3rd option support player playing next to a scoring center, and Okafor was new to the team and best used as the rebounding center to a scoring PF. It was a terrible line up to for Beal as he was introduced to the NBA game. Terrible.

So they were basically asking Beal to carry them ? Really ? I felt and still feel that was wrong and he could have done more sooner but we will never know. At a min, they should have had Crawford at PG. He would have been the alpha dog creator primary ball handler and primary scorer that allowed Beal to spot up and find his grove. Everyone was keying on Beal so he could hardly get his shot off. Crawford would have helped take the pressure off of him. That one roster change would have help the team not dig 10 pts holes after the first quarter every game. They played a lot of close game and if you look at the game numbers, mostly they played teams even for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarter. It was the first quarter that was killing them. Line up and no Nene or Wall was killing them.

But all that said, Beal was learning anyway. What surprised me more then anything was just how good he was at finishing on fast breaks and driving.. the Wade side of his game. I didn't expect him to have that right out of the gate. What shocked me was just how bad he was at actually shooting.... specially the 3 ball. Man did he struggle. But the rest of his game looked good. He looked like complete SG. He could defend, pass, fast break, rebound, etc. He just struggled hitting open shots.

For me, It seemed like it just a matter of time and how much work he was going to have to put in to get his shot right. NBA players are quicker, taller and faster and you could see he needed to adjust the speed of his release and the speed at which he decided if he was going to shoot or not. You could see that if he found his shoot, he was going to be very good. But I didn't expect that to happen like someone turned on a light switch. I expect Wall would help but it would take 20 -30 games. What Beal is going is insane.

On Jan 1, like he made a new year resolution, the Real Beal arrived. This was even before Wall returned mind you.

Since Jan, 1, 2013, Beal has been on fire. Insanely accurate from 3 and that was the missing piece to his game.

Ray Allen and Wade comparison.

I wanted them to draft him because they needed a complete SG who was a pure 3pt shooter. Some who was also mature who Wall could grow with over the years. I thought I saw a lot of Ray Allen in his personality and even his college coach name dropped Allen in an interview. He also named dropped Wade but I didn't expect that kind of game though it was the kind of game he showed first. Well here is what the comparison looks like. Keep in mind, Beal started off really shooting bad from 3 so that is dragging down his numbers. Check back on this link as the season goes on and these numbers should level out. Over time, his improved 3 pt shooting is going to vastly pull up his TS% which is currently only at .498%, while Ray was at .541% and Wade at .530% in their rookie years. But the year is not over. We are not even at the halfway point yet.

Since 1/1/13, The Real Deal Beal is 26-43 .605% from 3 land. That's insane. His current season 3% is .364% Shouldn't be long until that is in the .400% range. Ray is currently shooting .468 from 3 but in his rookie year he shot .393%. Go get it young man. If he keep this up, he will easily get past .393%

http://bkref.com/tiny/4qFmH

This represents the view of the user who wrote the FanPost, and not the entire Bullets Forever community. We're a place of many opinions, not just one.