Monday night, on the Grantland Basketball Hour, Zach Lowe devoted an entire piece to breaking down John Wall's passing acumen. It's an excellent visual breakdown of how Wall is so effective passing the ball.
The video is absolutely worth your time, but we wanted to highlight what Zach Lowe had to say about Wall's passing being discredited simply as a byproduct of his ridiculous athleticism.
Manu Ginobili has been suckering dudes with this exact dish for years. We call Manu "crafty" but we chalk up Wall's ridiculous assist numbers to his ridiculous speed and athleticism. That has to change.
Wall is a hoops intellectual, operating one step ahead of defenses. He knows how they'll respond to every dribble, and he manipulates them to create the best possible shots for teammates.
The corner three is his game of choice. It helps to be 6'4" and blazing fast. Wall can see all the way across the court and deliver 50 foot bullets off the dribble, with one hand. You don't toss passes like that without being an NBA genius.
Wall is a brainy player, an All-Star crafting high NBA art every night in D.C.