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Everybody Eats looks different than it did last season

NBA: Washington Wizards at Detroit Pistons Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

Daily Digits is a new daily feature we’re doing at Bullets Forever this year where we take a look at stats about the Wizards. We’ll dive into the numbers, add some context, and discuss how they affect the product on the court.

Today’s stat is the percentage of baskets that have been assisted on in the seven games since John Wall was ruled out for the season, which is...

62.3%

As you might expect, passing and ball movement is up since John Wall has been out of the lineup. That’s less of an indictment on Wall as it is about how the team is constructed. The Wizards simply have to move the ball more in order to create quality looks. They don’t have many ways to create good looks out of one-on-one situations.

Interestingly though, the ball movement hasn’t changed nearly as much as it did last season, when the Wizards assisted on 71 percent of their baskets in the first seven games after Wall went down last season, up over 11 percent from the average when Wall was on the floor. This season, it’s only been a modest four percent jump (57.9 to 62.3).

That may prove to bode a little better for the Wizards’ sustainability on offense the rest of the season. Once teams started to figure out how to slow down the passing, the offense sputtered. After averaging 113.9 points per 100 possessions in those first seven games, they only averaged 108.6 the rest of the way until Wall returned. Washington didn’t have enough answers once they were taken out of their offensive flow.

That’s changed a bit this season. Beal continues to play well, but Otto Porter Jr. has looked better in one-on-one situations as of late, as has Tomas Satoransky who has looked much more confident taking pull-up jumpers when the opportunities are there.

If Everybody Eats is going to be more than just another flash in the pan moment, there are going to be times in games where the Wizards’ key guys have to take the game into their own hands. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it looks like they’re taking steps in the right direction.