Has Wall met, surpassed, or fell short of your expectation?

[Dannyboy36]

Anyways, can we please have John Wall? Thanks!

[Kanyewest]

It is easy to forget just how bad Wall's jumper was at first. He is at least 10% better now. He also used to be scared to shoot 3s but has gotten over that. his jumper still isn't great but it was really an anchor his first few years.

He has come a long way. It will be interesting to see how much better he can be under Brooks. If nothing else Brooks has shown the ability to get through to young players to improve their games.

Wall may have gotten better with Brooks with his shot selection. But I also think the rotations have inflated Wall's numbers because Wall usually plays with the starters rather than with the bench. Same goes for Beal as well.

[FAH1223]

I'm a Celtic fan. I was wondering why the Wizards haven't been pretty good this year. Wall is awesome IMO and Beal is darn good. So popular opinion is it's the coach?
Don't fret Wizard fans. We made it to the playoffs the last two years and nothing to show for it. The Cavs didn't even break a sweat. We have picks but the first one we used rots in the bench because we have a capable coach but one that has no interest in developing.

Brooks just got here. While he's not great, he's marginally better than Wittman.

Coaching and player development during Wall's career has been poor... Brooks having better assistants will help a lot.

But the real culprit is Ernie Grunfeld. He's been the GM since 2003 and has nothing, zero, zilch to show for 14 seasons worth of work. He's the worst GM in the NBA. He can't draft. He can't sign value free agents. And he regularly overpays average to below average players and gives up valuable picks for no reason.

I'd love to have Danny Ainge at the helm. Or even Danny Ferry.

[dckingsfan]

Everyone in Boston knows we're not contenders...

Can a coach really every take that stance? A GM, yes. But a coach has to figure out what players to play to win now.

But instead of letting Brown take his lumps, he's riding the pine too much

Based upon Brown's metrics, I would say that he is playing the right number of minutes. He is playing 13.5 minutes per game, which is fine when you have a WS/48 of .037. Seems like that is the right number of minutes to me.

Rozier was recently a DNP.

True, but either he should get the minutes or Smart should get the minutes. Hard to have it both ways unless you are going to sit your one true all-star, Isaiah Thomas. It seems that Stevens is in the inevitable situation of having to choose.

He played fat Jared Sully over Olynyk when we knew Sully wasn't going to be resigned.

Danny told him that? I can't see that... I would also say that he has put Olynyk in a good position when he does play. Olynyk improved nicely in each of his first 3 seasons.

In Boston there's a phrase repeated over and over at nauseous and most believe it.
" Brad Stevens is the Celtics best asset".

No, having a competent GM is... and Danny thinks Stevens is quite capable - I would rate him as a top 10 coach - easily.

[payitforward]

He's good, not as good as Patrick Beverly though.

He's better now than Patrick Beverly was in the past. And he's going to be better than Patrick Beverly was in the past too. But Patrick Beverly is better now than John Wall will be in the future -- the distant future I mean, like in a couple of decades. John Wall in 2036 can't hold a candle to Patrick Beverly in 2016 whats the matter with you?

Also Patrick's Beverly is well known as superior to John's wall.

I don't care whose wall you are, all you can do is stay right where you are, which may be ok on the defensive side. But Patrick's Beverly moves so well, and that's good no matter what side she's on.

You can take that to the bank
but it still will never break it.

You all got me to thank
& that's even when I fake it.

[dangermouse]

This isn't really an answer to the question, exactly. Honestly I think this year he is playing the way I expected him to earlier.

It feels like this year the system has been built (by Brooks) for Wall, rather than Wall being built for the system (by Wittman). He's penetrating more. He _seems_ to be taking less long twos (would love a comparison on number of long twos taken this many games in compared to previous seasons, wouldnt know where to look). He's shooting the three well but i honestly never thought that would be a big part of his game (so i guess he exceeds in that area). He is getting screens set much higher for him, which someone pointed out in a game thread, this allows him to put the jets on and utilise his speed and handles to evade defenders and get to the cup (which again he appears to be doing more of this year, would love the numbers on this too).

The only area where he is not reaching my expectations is his defense. Its good but it isnt elite. I think he can be an elite PG defender, this is something that may come with time as Beal's or other players offense develops and allows him to take a breather now and then, and use the energy to exert extra effort on the defensive end. We've seen it lately in the 4th quarter where the whole team locks down. That is going to keep us winning games.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

He is carrying this team. We have only 5 legitimate NBA players.

I cringe sometimes when pulls a no pass,early in the shot clock fade away two or waves at an opposing point guard who has just turned the corner on him.

So some criticism is valid. He's certainly not perfect.

But c'mon. Without Wall over the past five years, we'd be one of the worst teams in the league. When we win, it's usually because he's willed us to victory.

I'm really hoping he plays his whole career here. We long time fans deserve it even if Ernie and Ted don't.

[CobraCommander]

He has surprised me because when he came in the league i thought he got by too much on speed and jumping...and NO real basketball skill...he was RAW talent. I still see him as raw (which is unfortunate) but you cant argue with the good numbers he is putting up. His turn overs are the only real problem i see with him. His defense appears to be a lack of lateral movement brought on by bad knees...that's not gonna change anytime soon.

[montestewart]

You can take that to the bank
but it still will never break it.

You all got me to thank
& that's even when I fake it.

I am strong, I am invincible...

Watch on YouTube

[montestewart]

Bump for Nat