C's fan: What the heck happened to Gerald Wallace

Marley2Hendrix · Post #1 » by **Marley2Hendrix** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 11:42 am

Hey gents, I was going to do some googling, but thought I'd start here first. Any insight you all can give about Wallace's precipitous drop in play this year? Loss of athleticism, lack of effort, depression, life events?

A quick glance at basketball-reference suggests that his game dropped off across the board. Now, I don't expect a good player out of wallace and am not really asking as a C fan who is hoping Wallace might contribute, rather, I'm out right curious; what the hell happened to this guy?

SpeedyG · Post #2 » by **SpeedyG** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 11:44 am

He got old and was not used properly.

Marley2Hendrix · Post #3 » by **Marley2Hendrix** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 11:55 am

SpeedyG wrote:He got old and was not used properly.

Can you say more about him not being used properly. Again, staggering that his rebounding/shooting plummeted, while TO% increased despite dropped usage. No rampant speculation from bloggers during the year about personal issues or nagging injuries, or, as you say, more of a guy whose game is predicated on athleticism lost a step?

Da_Kidd · Post #4 » by **Da_Kidd** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 12:01 pm

Basically the offense he was put in predicated on him becoming a spot-up shooter which was not his game at all. Often times, you can see him pigeon-holed in the corner or the elbow with the open shot and that's not how he should be used.

Post-ups and slashing opportunities should net him some of his offense and given the right system, he'll be better than he was last year.

The Hypnotoad · Post #5 » by **The Hypnotoad** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 5:15 pm

Sucks the Gerald Wallace was so disappointing for the Nets cause i loved him as a player when he was on the Bobcats.

His taking the ball out of the air from that Bulls player in the playoffs was badass though.

MrDollarBills · Post #6 » by **MrDollarBills** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 5:19 pm

He was a player that depended on his athleticism to get by.

Once that left him, the dude could barely make a layup.

Good luck to you. That guy's contract is atrocious

Ronito · Post #7 » by **Ronito** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 6:08 pm

His form on his shot got screwed up (more than before) and stopped being able to do anything at the rim in traffic. Any time he would drive and there's a defender standing there, he would jump in attempts for a dunk/layup and either miss badly or get called for a charge. Once in a blue moon, it would go in.

Post #8 » by **NyCeEvO** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 6:25 pm

Marley2Hendrix wrote:
SpeedyG wrote:He got old and was not used properly.

Can you say more about him not being used properly. Again, staggering that his rebounding/shooting plummeted, while TO% increased despite dropped usage. No rampant speculation from bloggers during the year about personal issues or nagging injuries, or, as you say, more of a guy whose game is predicated on athleticism lost a step?

I think Wallace suffered from a number of bad things.

1) Yes, it's obvious that he is declining athletically. He still has the ability to have a few pretty good offense-to-defense sequences but I wouldn't expect the same level of consistency that you saw a few years back.

2) Last year, we had the 3rd slowest pace in the league. The pace improved a bit under PJ (we were last in pace with Avery) but we still were a slow team. The positives of Wallace's game only really come out when you're playing an uptempo game so we never really got to see him play at a speed that was suitable for him.

3) With him and Reggie on the floor at the same time, we had pretty bad spacing on offense and it often allowed the defense to overload on the strong side, especially near the edge of the paint. The paint was clogged pretty often, but at the same time, we rarely saw Wallace slash to the basket regardless of how packed it was. At this point, I'm not sure if it's a mental thing with him, but hopefully he can start slashing to the basket again.

I don't really have any bad feelings towards you guys so I hope Wallace plays considerably better than he did last year and that our system was the reason why he was so bad.

Hitman33 · Post #9 » by **Hitman33** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 6:57 pm

He didn't have great stats last year and I realize they were down across the board from his usual stats, but I always felt the Nets were better when he was in the lineup.

HelloBrooklyn · Post #10 » by **HelloBrooklyn** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 7:14 pm

He still got it.. I still don't think he regressed I just think he wasn't used properly.

His half-courts set up which I think what got him going was totally different compare to the things he did back when he was in the Blazers and Bobcats. He was more of a high post iso player which is what got him going. We used him more of a spot up shooter. If you guys use him properly he should be back to form from what stats he usually get.

PetroNet · Post #11 » by **PetroNet** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:57 am

a combination of playing hurt constantly, a bit of an athletic decline, and most of all just being in a horrible system for his game.

We played at a snails pace and had no passing or motion. it was spot up while other guys iso. no transition opportunties.

i think wallace will love playing with rondo and bradley and should have a bounce back year for you guys.

N Ireland Nets · Post #12 » by **N Ireland Nets** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 8:36 am

His entire game is based on athleticism which is clearly on the decline.

He was horrible for Brooklyn BUT Wallace needs to be in an uptempo offense with a team that gets out and runs.

His contract was horrible along with his play and I still can't believe a team took him off us.

Jeffrey · Post #13 » by **Jeffrey** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 2:22 pm

when you hit your 30s and your game is all about athleticism... you basically have 2 routes...

1.) Add to your offensive repertoire - a perimeter game (ex. Kidd and Michael Jordan)

2.) its not even a downward trend but a nosedive where everyone says... WTF happened to him (Dwade, Ginobili)

Wallace is no.2

PetroNet · Post #14 » by **PetroNet** » Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:33 pm

The commentary on his decline is extremely overstated. He hasnt lost a ton of athletcism... he made tons of plays above the rim and in the full court. What hurt him was playing with a rib injury coming back to early and playing in a horrible slow paced system of ball stopping iso players, horribe passers, and in a system that asked him to be a spot up shooter.

the prior year in NJ, when we played uptempo more, used him at the 4 more, paired him with green brooks and dwill, everyone loved him. he was all over the place. we got alot of trasnition buckets.

He needs a team that uses him right. i think he will be really good for the celtics. i can easily see a 15/7/3/2 type season with his FG% going back up.

asking gerald wallace to play slow and shoot 18 footers is idiotic and why 2 coaches were fired last year

therealbig3 · Post #15 » by **therealbig3** » Sun Jun 30, 2013 7:29 am

^Well, I mentioned it a bunch of times during the year...Wallace was also dogging it pretty blatantly last year. He REFUSED to slash to the basket and actually preferred to stay on the perimeter and chuck bricks. He refused to fight around screens and instead would run right into them pretty much every time and shamelessly attempt to flop and fool no one, giving his man or the guy whose defender has to rotate over a wide open shot. His defense took a nosedive, as he was constantly getting beat off the dribble. His "effort" plays consisted of the dumbest attempts to sacrifice his body that went way beyond "hustle" and just entered "stupid" territory. He was incapable of converting layups at a respectable percentage. He couldn't catch. He committed the most obvious offensive fouls in transition where he would just run full force into a standstill defender. He rarely boxed anyone out.

It was more than just an athletic decline, injuries, an inability to shoot, and a poor system...he played lazy, inattentive, incompetent, and low IQ basketball as well. And on top of that, he had the nerve to constantly call out the team for playing without passion...as valid as that criticism was, it has no impact when the guy making the criticism is more guilty than anyone else of playing without any heart.

I'm so happy he's off this team. Good news for the Celtics...if he plays like he did this year, he'll definitely help you tank. Pierce literally does everything better than Wallace, and the amazing thing is, he's probably less of an injury risk than Wallace as well.

That's another thing that people aren't thinking of when they say injuries are a major concern for us...it's really only a concern when it comes to KG. If D-Will is in better shape and is well-rested entering this season, he won't struggle through injuries like last year outside of a freak occurrence, JJ has usually been pretty healthy but if he's injured who really cares...he's not that essential, Lopez played 74 games last year in his first year back from his foot injury...I think he'll be fine, and Pierce is less injury-prone than Wallace. And say KG does get injured...we're no longer a contender, but we're still a significantly better team than the one that won 49 games last year (including a 6-5 record against NY/CHI/IND), because it'll essentially be the same team with Pierce instead of Wallace.