Bradley Beal - Part III

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Good for Beal.

He's worked hard to improve his game.

We all recognize his weaknesses (FT shooting, 4th quarter production, underwhelming 3pt %), but he is a pretty willing defender and has developed excellent handles and footwork from almost nothing.

[Illmatic12]

Good for Beal.

He's worked hard to improve his game.

We all recognize his weaknesses (FT shooting, 4th quarter production, underwhelming 3pt %), but he is a pretty willing defender and has developed excellent handles and footwork from almost nothing.

The improvement of Beal's handle has been in a word: dramatic. I never would've imagined him making some of these highlights based on where he was in his early years:

Watch on YouTube

Imagine if Oubre makes a similar leap in his ballhandling working with Drew Hanlen?

[Coach76]

This is the puff piece that I've been waiting for Candace Buckner to write about Bradley Beal since she got to the The Washington Post.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wizards/bradley-beal-has-always-been-a-quiet-leader-he-had-to-learn-to-be-the-voice-the-wizards-need/2018/02/15/fd8a6240-1279-11e8-9570-29c9830535e5_story.html

[nate33]

Over the past 10 games, Beal is averaging 6.5 assists per game (to go along with 23.7 points per game). If he averaged 6.5 assists per game for a whole season, he would rank 14th in the league in assists per game.

[DCZards]

Over the past 10 games, Beal is averaging 6.5 assists per game (to go along with 23.7 points per game). If he averaged 6.5 assists per game for a whole season, he would rank 14th in the league in assists per game.

Yup, BB has had an impressive February thus far: 22.4 points, 6.3 assists, 4.9 boards, 2.3 three-pointers and 2.0 steals through seven games.

[nate33]

Beal ranks 9th in the league in minutes played per game at 36.4. He ranks 5th in the league in total minutes played. Beal deserves a ton of credit for all of his hard work to get his body right and ready for the NBA grind.

[nate33]

Since Wall has been out, Beal has made 26 of his last 29 free throws and has missed only one in the 4th quarter (against Philly with 4:18 to go while down 8 points).

Hopefully his FT shooting woes are over. He has his FT% up to .795.

[80sballboy]

Since Wall has been out, Beal has made 26 of his last 29 free throws and has missed only one in the 4th quarter (against Philly with 4:18 to go while down 8 points).

Hopefully his FT shooting woes are over. He has his FT% up to .795.

Maybe you're doing this to send a hidden message or not. But I get it. In some ways he's better without Wall. He's become more of a combo guard and he handles it a lot with or without Sato in the game. With Wall in the game, it appears they are trying to outdo each other. Kind of like brothers for competing with each other for everything. It's two on five. Could he better without Wall and with another combo guard like Dame or somebody younger? IDK. Let's see after Wall returns how this turns out.

But I can't put his free throw shooting woes on Wall being there or not being there.

[nate33]

Since Wall has been out, Beal has made 26 of his last 29 free throws and has missed only one in the 4th quarter (against Philly with 4:18 to go while down 8 points).

Hopefully his FT shooting woes are over. He has his FT% up to .795.

Maybe you're doing this to send a hidden message or not. But I get it. In some ways he's better without Wall. He's become more of a combo guard and he handles it a lot with or without Sato in the game. With Wall in the game, it appears they are trying to outdo each other. Kind of like brothers for competing with each other for everything. It's two on five. Could he better without Wall and with another combo guard like Dame or somebody younger? IDK. Let's see after Wall returns how this turns out.

But I can't put his free throw shooting woes on Wall being there or not being there.

Sorry. I wasn't trying to send a hidden message. It's just that the pattern of Beal hitting free throws happened to start on the first game Wall missed. Certainly, I'm not holding Wall responsible for Beal missing free throws.

Overall, Beal hasn't played that much better or worse without Wall - other than his assist rate is up substantially. He is scoring slightly less efficiently without Wall (ORtg of 108 versus 111 on the entire season).

[80sballboy]

Watching Beal at the 3-point contest, I wondered why he was even invited as a 37% 3pt shooter. Didn't even looked like he wanted to be there, though I no he's not super emotional. I guess it's tough for him to rapidfire shoot 3s without pointing to God every time.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Since Wall has been out, Beal has made 26 of his last 29 free throws and has missed only one in the 4th quarter (against Philly with 4:18 to go while down 8 points).

Hopefully his FT shooting woes are over. He has his FT% up to .795.

Maybe you're doing this to send a hidden message or not. But I get it. In some ways he's better without Wall. He's become more of a combo guard and he handles it a lot with or without Sato in the game. With Wall in the game, it appears they are trying to outdo each other. Kind of like brothers for competing with each other for everything. It's two on five. Could he better without Wall and with another combo guard like Dame or somebody younger? IDK. Let's see after Wall returns how this turns out.

But I can't put his free throw shooting woes on Wall being there or not being there.

Sorry. I wasn't trying to send a hidden message. It's just that the pattern of Beal hitting free throws happened to start on the first game Wall missed. Certainly, I'm not holding Wall responsible for Beal missing free throws.

Overall, Beal hasn't played that much better or worse without Wall - other than his assist rate is up substantially. He is scoring slightly less efficiently (ORtg of 108 versus 111 on the entire season).

Otto Porter's ORtg has gone up to 124 (from 108) with Wall out. Also, OP's scoring has considerably increased with Wall out.

Bradley Beal and Tomas Satoransky are passing the ball more to Otto Porter. Porter is scoring a lot more in crunch time.

[nate33]

Maybe you're doing this to send a hidden message or not. But I get it. In some ways he's better without Wall. He's become more of a combo guard and he handles it a lot with or without Sato in the game. With Wall in the game, it appears they are trying to outdo each other. Kind of like brothers for competing with each other for everything. It's two on five. Could he better without Wall and with another combo guard like Dame or somebody younger? IDK. Let's see after Wall returns how this turns out.

But I can't put his free throw shooting woes on Wall being there or not being there.

Sorry. I wasn't trying to send a hidden message. It's just that the pattern of Beal hitting free throws happened to start on the first game Wall missed. Certainly, I'm not holding Wall responsible for Beal missing free throws.

Overall, Beal hasn't played that much better or worse without Wall - other than his assist rate is up substantially. He is scoring slightly less efficiently (ORtg of 108 versus 111 on the entire season).

Otto Porter's ORtg has gone up to 124 (from 108) with Wall out. Also, OP's scoring has considerably increased with Wall out.

Bradley Beal and Tomas Satoransky are passing the ball more to Otto Porter. Porter is scoring a lot more in crunch time.

Your numbers are off a bit, but your overall point is correct.

Before Wall went out, Porter averaged 13.5 points per game with an ORtg of 116.
After Wall went out, Porter averaged 19.1 points per game with an ORtg of 126.

Basically, Porter is taking an additional 2.8 FGA's per game and making... all of them! He has a TS% of 100% on each marginal additional attempt!

This goes to what most on this board has pointed out for a while. When Wall gets back, he needs to cut down on his FGA's and find a way to get more shots for Otto.

[queridiculo]

Beal ranks 9th in the league in minutes played per game at 36.4. He ranks 5th in the league in total minutes played. Beal deserves a ton of credit for all of his hard work to get his body right and ready for the NBA grind.

I've felt for a while that if Wall had a similar work ethic to Beal there wouldn't be many conversations about his contract.

Not saying Wall is lazy or anything, but Beal is lazer focused on being the best he can be, not sure Wall has that same mentality in the gym.

[nate33]

Beal ranks 9th in the league in minutes played per game at 36.4. He ranks 5th in the league in total minutes played. Beal deserves a ton of credit for all of his hard work to get his body right and ready for the NBA grind.

I've felt for a while that if Wall had a similar work ethic to Beal there wouldn't be many conversations about his contract.

Not saying Wall is lazy or anything, but Beal is lazer focused on being the best he can be, not sure Wall has that same mentality in the gym.

Reports are that Wall is a really hard worker with the knee rehab and stuff, but I wonder if he is an efficient worker. I just haven't seen significant improvement in his fundamentals throughout his career. He has gotten stronger for sure, and he has incrementally improved his jumper, but I don't see any advanced footwork or ball fakes or hesitation moves. He just scores because he's physically superior to most NBA opponents. I get the sense that his offseason regimen is simply to play a lot of basketball.

Beal, on the other hand, looks like a different player from his rookie year. His ball handling and footwork is on a completely different level. When he works on his game, he is working with a purpose and he obviously listens to his coaches. I'm sure he spends hours and hours doing boring, repetitive work on specific skill sets.

Caveat, this is just my sense of things. I don't watch them train and I don't to bash Wall unfairly. He may be busting his ass in the offseason doing lots of drills. I don't know.

[barelyawake]

Entirely disagree about all three:footwork, fakes and hesitation moves. I so strongly disagree, I get mad about it. I certainly noted earlier in his career all three things you listed were things he needed to work on to elevate his game. And he certainly has. He never had the spin moves he demonstrated last year. He’s worked extensively on his no looks, head fakes, eye fakes, ball fakes, crossover, hesitation moves, speed changes, etc...

I’m entirely unsure how you can say he hasn’t. Does he still get a little ahead of himself sometimes? Without question. But, the progress on the above list is obvious. Check the clip reel. Every clip has an eye fake, head fake, ball fake, hesitation move, speed change or spin move. Yes it’s only ten plays, but it certainly represents what we got about three times a game from Wall, sometimes more, last season.

Watch on YouTube

[DCZards]

Watching Beal at the 3-point contest, I wondered why he was even invited as a 37% 3pt shooter. Didn't even looked like he wanted to be there, though I no he's not super emotional. I guess it's tough for him to rapidfire shoot 3s without pointing to God every time.

Devin Booker, who won the 3 pt contest last night, is shooting 38% on 3s this season and is a 36% career 3 pt shooter. Beal is a 39% career 3 pt shooter.

Last night, Beal outperformed contestants who have a higher 3 pt % than he does, including Paul George, who is shooting 43% this season.

[nate33]

Entirely disagree about all three:footwork, fakes and hesitation moves. I so strongly disagree, I get mad about it. I certainly noted earlier in his career all three things you listed were things he needed to work on to elevate his game. And he certainly has. He never had the spin moves he demonstrated last year. He’s worked extensively on his no looks, head fakes, eye fakes, ball fakes, crossover, hesitation moves, speed changes, etc...

I’m entirely unsure how you can say he hasn’t. Does he still get a little ahead of himself sometimes? Without question. But, the progress on the above list is obvious. Check the clip reel. Every clip has an eye fake, head fake, ball fake, hesitation move, speed change or spin move. Yes it’s only ten plays, but it certainly represents what we got about three times a game from Wall, sometimes more, last season.

Watch on YouTube

I didn't see anything in that video that he couldn't do in his rookie year or at Kentucky. Yes, sure, the game has slowed down for him some, and he certainly has gotten better at reading defenses and looking off defenders, but I don't see significantly better shooting form or shooting percentages over his 8 years in the league. He stopped putting his off hand at the front of the ball on his release, but that's about it. The numbers show virtually no improvement whatsoever. His FT% hasn't improved since his 2nd season, and his 3P% hasn't improved since his 4th season. His shooting percentage from midrange peaked in his 3rd season and hasn't improved since.

Last year (his 7th season) was his best year by the advanced stats, but just barely. He was only slightly better than he was during his 3rd season. And his 6th and 8th seasons were statistically his worst since his 2nd season.

Frankly, I only see the type of overall improvement one would expect to see with lots of experience in the league. He's better about reading defenses, he's got a more instinctive feel of how to best play help defense, his passing is slightly better and his turnovers are steadily decreasing. But I'm not seeing the type of improvement I would expect to see if he was spending long hours with a trainer working on footwork, hesitation moves, and jumper. Maybe he is working really hard at this stuff, but it's not showing up in the stats.

[barelyawake]

Nate, had you said shooting form, I’d have agreed with you. You said footwork, hesitation moves and fakes. And he absolutely didn’t have a good handle on any of those, nor a good conception of how to implement spin movers or speed changes. I remember having these exact discussions about it — especially on his need to develop speed changes and head fakes.

My only qualm is he has dramatically improved in terms of footwork, fakes, hesitation moves and speed changes. He does them at a fairly high level now, which few NBA players are able to pull off.Beal certainly doesn’t have half the bag of tricks Wall has developed while in the NBA.

Can and should he do better in some aspects? Yes. Not those.

[Dat2U]

Nate, had you said shooting form, I’d have agreed with you. You said footwork, hesitation moves and fakes. And he absolutely didn’t have a good handle on any of those, nor a good conception of how to implement spin movers or speed changes. I remember having these exact discussions about it — especially on his need to develop speed changes and head fakes.

My only qualm is he has dramatically improved in terms of footwork, fakes, hesitation moves and speed changes. He does them at a fairly high level now, which few NBA players are able to pull off.Beal certainly doesn’t have half the bag of tricks Wall has developed while in the NBA.

Can and should he do better in some aspects? Yes. Not those.

Now its time to modernize his game. Ditch the high volume 2s and focus on either on shooting the 3 or getting to the rim. He also has to develop some advanced foot work finishing at the rim. Where's his eurostep at? I've seen him flash it before but that's not enough.

Wall could also make his life easier by just backing down other PGs in the post... he's going to have a physical advantage most nights. Westbrook is a shade smaller but is easily the best guard in the league at this. Wall should be right up there with him at physically imposing his will on other PGs and not just trying to beat everyone with speed.

[CobraCommander]

Wish would have worn Walls Jersey to start the game like Davis did.... to honor is his road dawg...just joking btw. It was great to see the panda (why is that his nickname...we normally call Hapa/s or hybrids that and I didnt think he was one) play in the allstar game. Just think BB used to be oft injured...now he healthy!