Official John Wall Appreciation Thread 2.0

[hands11]

Now I just hope Wall adjusts well to the increased praise he is getting and will be getting.

This is an important next step.

Will he go the way of a KD and Duncan and remain calm and mature.

Or will he go the way of countless others who let it go to their head.

This is also where having other established vets around like Nene, Trevor A and Okafor help. Plus the team has another young stud in Beal who will get plenty of attention. And they have a cool smart cat in Webby.

I would worry more if Wall was the only good talent on a team with players like Young and McGee.

[Knighthonor]

His PER is now up to 20, 6th among pgs. His TS% is up to 53%, same as Westbrook.

Funny how both Wall and Beal had such sudden, dramatic turnarounds in the middle of the season.

Intentional Failure?
sounds pretty Tank like to me...

Jan may be doing a better job of it than Wall and Beal. imagine what Jan has in store for us once 2014 is over....
Wiz get the lotto for big draft and all players turn SSJ1 on the league's ass.

EG is a Genius....
not trolling, but if this was his plan all along, he a **** Genius. I just knew the man behind the Gil Trade/ CButler trade, and Jamerson trade couldnt be this **** stupid. Impossible to be that stupid and make that kind of money in a job that doesnt allow stupidness. Unless it was an intended tank!!

**** Genius!!

[montestewart]

^
Tanking to get a late lottery pick in a supposedly middling draft? A better tank wouldn't have had Okariza, leaving more money to make a move after a far superior tank. EG's just lucky that he (apparently) didn't blow his #1 and #3 picks. I hope he doesn't keep lucking into continued employment primarily on the backs of Wall's and Beal's successes.

[hands11]

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... der_by=pts

Great numbers.

[tontoz]

I got the game on DVR. I think i will keep it awhile.

I can't get over Wall scoring 47. If someone told us last month that this would happen we would have laughed.

[Knighthonor]

^
Tanking to get a late lottery pick in a supposedly middling draft? A better tank wouldn't have had Okariza, leaving more money to make a move after a far superior tank. EG's just lucky that he (apparently) didn't blow his #1 and #3 picks. I hope he doesn't keep lucking into continued employment primarily on the backs of Wall's and Beal's successes.

Drafting Jan was genus.
if Wizards had got somebody better they would never have got Beal....

Also keep in mind, that they still need to tank in the 2014 loaded draft. How would it look to be all loaded up and tank the following season which happens to be a loaded draft. Looks suspicious. Only Stern gets away with suspicious moves like that.

Tanking this season got the wizards a lotto pick, as well as the NO trade likely scored EG bronie points with Stern for the 2014 draft.
Something likely going to happen( which EG will tell us near the beginning of the season) and Beal will sit out on the bench like Wall did. the other players will not be allowed to perform well because Whitt will be instructed to use bad rotations again so that Wall's SSJ2 explosion doesnt do too much damage to the tank train. than later on EG brings Beal back to boost rating before the draft.

He a hidden genius!!!
Nobody could be that stupid as a GM. Nobody!!!
Look between the lines. the NBA is very Shady.

[keynote]

I know there have been reports of Wall planning to meet up with Gary Payton (who's smartly starting up a "Hakeem clinic for perimeter players" gig). Here's The Glove on how it started:

A guy that I really like is [John] Wall from Washington. Yeah. That’s becoming one of my guys. One of my kids. He tweeted me and asked for my number and I called him and we’ve been tight ever since. He’s a kid where I like him because he called me to ask me how to get better at playing defense and how to become a good point guard. That’s the type of stuff I'm saying. Some of these kids nowadays their egos are too big to go to old-school guys and say, "I need to know about my ability and how can I get better." Once he did that, it was a lock for me and him to become really close.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-trian ... king-trash

[DCsOwn]

OKLAHOMA CITY — The best game of John Wall’s career — his 47-point masterpiece in Monday night’s victory over the Memphis Grizzlies — didn’t just happen because the Washington Wizards were down to nine healthy players and desperately needed him to score like never before. It wasn’t just the culmination of a March hot streak.

http://m.washingtonpost.com/sports/capi ... story.html

[hands11]

OKLAHOMA CITY — The best game of John Wall’s career — his 47-point masterpiece in Monday night’s victory over the Memphis Grizzlies — didn’t just happen because the Washington Wizards were down to nine healthy players and desperately needed him to score like never before. It wasn’t just the culmination of a March hot streak.

http://m.washingtonpost.com/sports/capi ... story.html

Sounds like a lot of stuff we have discussed here over the years.

The strike. The injury.
The change of speed, etc. Picking your spots on when to step up the scoring.

Also what came to my mind was McGee. Doesn't look like John was sitting around waiting for someone from the Wizards to flip the bill for him to get the training he felt he needed in the off season. He took it upon himself to get better.

What I have always liked about Wall is that he is still first and foremost, a player that want to be a true PG first.

Really looking forward to the game tonight. I hope he can keep it up. Big statement game for Wall.

Updated numbers. I expanded the field so it now includes 21 names.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... rder_by=ws

PER 20.1 5th
FG% .455 7th
TS% .533 climbing now at 12th better then Westbrook
AST % 44.7% 4th
BLK% 1.9% 1st by a mile
DRtg 102 tied for 2nd

His TOV% improved 0.7 so he is now at 14th. If he can get that into the 14 to 14.5 range, that would be huge.

ORtg got better by 2. He is now at 104. If he can get that to 110 by the end of the year. Again, huge.

This I don't understand. Conley has a DRtg of 100 and it didn't change at all from that last game when Wall went for 46. How is that ?

Man, Tony Parker is a great value. All that and he is locked in at 12.5M for 2 more years.

[nate33]

His TOV% improved 0.7 so he is now at 14th. If he can get that into the 14 to 14.5 range, that would be huge.

ORtg got better by 2. He is now at 104. If he can get that to 110 by the end of the year. Again, huge.

This I don't understand. Conley has a DRtg of 100 and it didn't change at all from that last game when Wall went for 46. How is that ?

Man, Tony Parker is a great value. All that and he is locked in at 12.5M for 2 more years.

His numbers won't improve that much. It's pretty much impossible for him to get that ORtg up to 110 in just 12 games. He'd need to average a ORtg of 128 on high usage. Basically, he'd have to outplay Lebron for the next 12 games. Same thing with turnovers. He'd have to post a TOV% of just 7% to meet your goal. He'd have to turn the ball over half as much as Chris Paul.

Your question about Conley points out the weakness of DRtg as a stat. Basically DRtg incorporates the few defensive box score stats out there (blocks, steals, defensive rebounds) and then looks at team defensive efficiency and assigns a portion of that to each player. Conley has a good DRtg because Memphis plays good D as a team and Conley gets a lot of steals. It has nothing whatsoever to do with his ability to shut down individual players. Giving up 107 points as a team (on a night when Conley himself got 3 steals) isn't going to affect his overall DRtg much. His DRtg will steadily get worse if he continues to play a lot of games without Marc Gasol though.

[tontoz]

I know there have been reports of Wall planning to meet up with Gary Payton (who's smartly starting up a "Hakeem clinic for perimeter players" gig). Here's The Glove on how it started:

A guy that I really like is [John] Wall from Washington. Yeah. That’s becoming one of my guys. One of my kids. He tweeted me and asked for my number and I called him and we’ve been tight ever since. He’s a kid where I like him because he called me to ask me how to get better at playing defense and how to become a good point guard. That’s the type of stuff I'm saying. Some of these kids nowadays their egos are too big to go to old-school guys and say, "I need to know about my ability and how can I get better." Once he did that, it was a lock for me and him to become really close.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-trian ... king-trash

It is nice to know that Wall is the one who initiated contact.

[Nivek]

Nate hit on all the key points in talking about drtg. Memphis missing Marc Gasol is a big deal to their defense. The center is the most important defender, and Gasol is better than most.

[deneem4]

Wall has put on adidas and became d.rose clone...they game is sooooo identical now...wall is better than westbrook....hes more mentally developed as a pg...beal was also looking incredible for a rookie...webster has become a top 3...3pt shooter....but the last couple games wall has been looking like derrick rose....on roses best nights...and thts mind blowing doing it on this wizards team

[tontoz]

On the season Wall is shooting 38% outside 10 feet. In march he is shooting 48%.

For comparison Rose has had years of 33%, 38%, 40% and 44%. Westbrooks 5 seasons range from 34% to 39%.

[Higga]

Looks like Stan Van Gundy now appreciates Wall. He was on ESPN 980 earlier and has done a complete 180 on Wall and the Wiz after ripping them a couple months ago, saying the Wiz would be a top 4 seed in the East if Wall were healthy all year.

[DCZards]

Will he go the way of a KD and Duncan and remain calm and mature.

Or will he go the way of countless others who let it go to their head.

This is also where having other established vets around like Nene, Trevor A and Okafor help. Plus the team has another young stud in Beal who will get plenty of attention. And they have a cool smart cat in Webby.

It's great having vets like Webster, Nene, Trevor, etc. around our youngins, but the key guy for both Beal and Wall appears to be Cassell. A couple of weeks ago, Beal gave Sam I Am props for helping him and on Monday night seemed like just about every time Wall made he play he looked toward Sam for approval. At one point in the second half, after he had made a particulary nice play, John gave a prolonged "thumbs up" toward the Zards bench in order to make sure Cassell saw the gesture.

Sam just smiled his toothy smile throughout it all.

[tontoz]

Will he go the way of a KD and Duncan and remain calm and mature.

Or will he go the way of countless others who let it go to their head.

This is also where having other established vets around like Nene, Trevor A and Okafor help. Plus the team has another young stud in Beal who will get plenty of attention. And they have a cool smart cat in Webby.

It's great having vets like Webster, Nene, Trevor, etc. around our youngins, but the key guy for both Beal and Wall appears to be Cassell. A couple of weeks ago, Beal gave Sam I Am props for helping him and on Monday night seemed like just about every time Wall made he play he looked toward Sam for approval. At one point in the second half, after he had made a particulary nice play, John gave a prolonged "thumbs up" toward the Zards bench in order to make sure Cassell saw the gesture.

Sam just smiled his toothy smile throughout it all.

I always liked Sam as a player. Crafty, clutch and cocky as hell but in a good way. Always had something to say to everyone. He was the kind of guy that seems hard not to like.

[DCZards]

I always liked Sam as a player. Crafty, clutch and cocky as hell but in a good way. Always had something to say to everyone. He was the kind of guy that seems hard not to like.

Yup, that pretty much sums up Sam as a player...sneaky as hell. It also doesn't hurt that he has two championship rings from when he played for the Rockets.

[Kanyewest]

I always liked Sam as a player. Crafty, clutch and cocky as hell but in a good way. Always had something to say to everyone. He was the kind of guy that seems hard not to like.

Yup, that pretty much sums up Sam as a player...sneaky as hell. It also doesn't hurt that he has two championship rings from when he played for the Rockets.

Plus one with the Celtics.

[Nivek]

Wall has publicly credited Cassell at least a couple times for working with him on his shot.

Loved Cassell as a player. He was one of those guys perpetually unhappy with his contract, though. He kept signing deals that a year or two later left him drastically underpaid.

And talk about defying the aging curve. His three best seasons were (in order): 2001-02, 2002-0
3 and 2003-04 -- ages 32, 33 and 34.