Bradley Beal

[nuposse04]

I'm beginning to think W. Matthews and Afflalo might be the floor of this kid, which isn't all that terrible. I think he might end up being some sort of hybrid Gordon+Redd by the end of it, while his shooting is looking beautiful these days, asking him to be the next Ray Allen might be a bit much.

We might have the future best defensive back court tandem. In a league beginning to be dominated by perimeter play, that may count for something.

[DCsOwn]

My opinion of Beal hasn't changed from day 1 - He's going to be a very good solid starting player. I don't see greatness in him. I see a poor man's Harden - especially when they were matched up against each other - a very smart controlled player with good - not great all-around skills and solid - but not top athleticism and size. When you watch a couple games of McLemore, you see what great athleticism is - with a great shooting touch and relatively the same as Beal in other categories. I'm not knocking Beal - I'm a fan of his. That's just what I see in honestly evaluating potential, fwiw.

I don't understand why people have taken to calling Beal a poor man's Harden when he plays nothing like Harden. His game is much more akin to a Richard Hamilton than Harden, but even that isn't the greatest comp since he's shorter than Hamilton, but much stronger and I think he's more explosive going to the basket and vertically.

Anyway, I'm not convinced that McLemore is on a different plane than Beal athletically. I'm not. He's athletic as hell sure, but Beal is massively underrated athletically. McLemore can sky, but is he going to appreciably clear 39.0 inches with his max vert? I doubt it very much. He has a solid first step, but is his no step vert, the best measure of sudden explosion imo, gonna be much better than 33.0 inches? Doubt it. Is his lane agility going to be much better than 10.95, is he going to bench more than the 8 reps Beal had at the combine etc. Doubt it.

And with Beal, those athletic numbers clearly translate onto the court (and those are high-end numbers). Despite not being viewed in the same light as McLemore athletically, in college Beal was a tremendous rebounder (although he did play the three admittedly), and he had several nasty dunks over defenders that were more impressive than anything I've seen from McLemore on that front. At the NBA level, we've all seen how easily Beal moves laterally and how strong of an on-ball defender he is. We've seen him catch oops, we've seen him dunk on people, we've seen him soar for rebounds etc. He's downgraded by most on that front for two reasons. The first is that his handle isn't tight enough for him to fully utilize his blow by ability off the dribble, so his first step looks unremarkable on most dribble drives (although he's shown a very solid first step when working out of the triple threat position), and secondly he plays a very smooth and under control game. It's the same reason that Ray Allen perpetually had his athleticism underrated until he took off on someone every few games.

From my viewings, the only clear advantage McLemore seemed to have over Beal is that he looks a bit faster running in the open court (I also thought that he looked a little taller and longer, but DraftExpress has him listed at 6 4.5 181 with a 6'7 wingspan. Those are 2010 measurements so it's probably best to say that we don't know how they measure relative to one another on those fronts.) We'll see what he does at the combine though for the definitive word I guess.

[OffTheWall2]

Mitch Richmond was and is the best comparison for Beal imo.

I'll take a Richmond'esque career out of my 3rd pick any day of the week.

[montestewart]

Mitch Richmond was and is the best comparison for Beal imo.

I'll take a Richmond'esque career out of my 3rd pick any day of the week.

And in 10-12 years, we can trade him for a Webberesque player in his prime.

[SizzlinSimms]

Has looked great tonight and the past few games.

I was very skeptical early in the season, but now that he has confidence, his shot is falling, also playing with Wall will help.

I foresee a great future. Will he be a top ten player in the league? Doubtful and I don't think anybody expects that but I see him being a great compliment to Wall. The confidence and what Whitman is asking this 19 year to do is pretty astonishing. Not many 19 year olds could do that.

[gambitx777]

having a hell of a night tonight, 6 3's and 10 minutes to go in the 4th Q

[DCZards]

The confidence and what Whitman is asking this 19 year to do is pretty astonishing. Not many 19 year olds could do that.

Yup, not many 19 year old rookies are being asked to be the go-to scorer for an NBA team. Yet that's exactly what Beal has become.

[TheBigThree]

Tough loss, but I'll sleep easy knowing Beal is now shooting 61% from 3 in January.

[Halcyon]

Beal is turning into a sick shooter. Now guys are gonna run him off the three point line even more now, and force him to dribble. The good thing is that he makes pretty good decisions overall, so it'll be interesting to see how he counters teams doing this.

[SizzlinSimms]

The confidence and what Whitman is asking this 19 year to do is pretty astonishing. Not many 19 year olds could do that.

Yup, not many 19 year old rookies are being asked to be the go-to scorer for an NBA team. Yet that's exactly what Beal has become.

I'll go ahead and quote a paragraph I posted to another a far smaller forum:

Second of all from this game, I love Bradley Beal. I truly BEALieve. I mean this young guy is only 19 years old. Randy Whitman, definitely not the greatest coach, but not the worst despite our record, more on him later, has a lot of trust in this young rookie and believes that he's capable of performing in the league as of right now. He had a great game tonight: 9 of 14 (6/7 from downtown) 6 assists and leading the Wiz with 26 points. He's also the only Wizard to crack 30 mins tonight O_o. Beal played 41 minutes! The last play was diagrammed for Beal. There was a little contact, not really enough to be called, but the fact that the Wizards are relying on a 19 year old old right now still astonishes me. I mean, how many teams best play throughout the season was probably a 19 year old or relied heavily on a 19 year old? I can't think of many. A lot had decent help and players who could shoulder the load or help teach. Beal pretty much has zero. I'd hate Beal to learn from Crawford, Price, Webster, and possibly even Wall. I hope Sam Cassell (he's an assistant coach) might be able to teach him something though. All in all I foresee Beal as a possible 20-25 ppg type player. Some Wiz forums said a similar Mitch Richmond, which thinking about it, would be perfectly fine with me. I'd love to see Beal take the more scoring responsibility and Wall the more playmaker/facilitator role.

[thinker07]

I'm pretty skeptical - I'm not sure that he compares to the most successful 3 point shooter in the HISTORY of the NBA. I'm feeling only so so about Beal - It's not clear whether he will be one of the 10 best players in the NBA.

[dangermouse]

10 best players? Nah. I think he has the tools to be a top 10-15 SG though. Not hard being that it is a rather weak position currently.

One thing is for sure, he is earning his Rookie of the Month honors this time.

[SizzlinSimms]

That was a pretty high judgment. Do I think he'll even be close to a top 10 player no. Even top 20? Highly probable not. Do I think he'll come a great number 2 option and scorer? Yes. Do I think he can average 20-25 ppg throughout multiple seasons? Yes.

His FG% is god awful right now but I feel that is because of earlier in the season. Did you see the offense they ran earlier in the season. Was that even an offense? Or was it just YMCA pick up basketball? It was all iso, pass iso, pass iso, shot clock winding down and chuck! Why do you think a majority of the Wizards this season have horrible FG%? They took horrible shots. At least with Wall back we see an offense. Beal coming off picks, down low posts, Wall driving and kicking out. It's not the greatest, but damn at least it's not what we saw earlier in the season.

I'm not a basketball tactician or strategist, but I can tell the Wizards are playing with far more confidence and scheme than earlier in the season. I don't know how much has to do with Whitman finding a workable plan or Wall coming back. However I do know that Beal has been playing extremely well these past couple weeks.

[SizzlinSimms]

By top ten I meant top ten player in the league during any season. Not a top ten player career wise. Ha.

[Jimmy Recard]

Updated numbers through january (8 games):

18.8 ppg
FG% 46.3
TS% 57.2
3.7 rpg
3.4 apg

[dangermouse]

By top ten I meant top ten player in the league during any season. Not a top ten player career wise. Ha.

Yeah thats what I assumed. I still disagree. Make it top 20 and we can shake on it.

[dangermouse]

Updated numbers through january (8 games):

18.8 ppg
FG% 46.3
TS% 57.2
3.7 rpg
3.4 apg

Wow, those are some ridiculously good stats for a 19 year old rook. Against some good teams too.

[tontoz]

18% from 3 last month, 61% from 3 this month.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The confidence and what Whitman is asking this 19 year to do is pretty astonishing. Not many 19 year olds could do that.

Yup, not many 19 year old rookies are being asked to be the go-to scorer for an NBA team. Yet that's exactly what Beal has become.

On second thought, I take back what I said about I would trade Beal for McLemore, Smart, or possibly McCollum.

Beal could end up better than Wall. Or, they could end up being one of the better NBA backcourts.

[Induveca]

Mitch Richmond was and is the best comparison for Beal imo.

I'll take a Richmond'esque career out of my 3rd pick any day of the week.

And in 10-12 years, we can trade him for a Webberesque player in his prime.