Rose was definitely better at half court offense, but little of that had to do with proficiency getting to the rim. It was almost purely due to Wall's terrible jumper last year. I do think Rose
may have a little better first step, but Wall has no trouble getting to the rim, and has a blazing first step. What you are seeing in games isn't that Wall's first step isn't as good, it is that because Wall's first step is so good, and his jumper isn't, defenders sag off him and challenge him to shoot.
The Wall first step criticism is one unique to realgm Bulls fans as far as I can tell. Can you Bulls fans post a link to any scout or media source that supports that Wall has a mediocre first step, or has trouble getting to the rim in the half court? Any link from a decent, non-bleacher report source? Secondarily, I have never seen Wall stonewalled by anyone the way Lebron totally shut down Rose one on one in the playoffs.
For all of Wall's acknowledged inefficiencies last year, turnovers, defense, and his jumper, Wall posted a TS% .494. Rose had a rookie TS% of .516. Westbrook had a rookie TS% of .490. So, Wall had a TS% better than Westbrook, and 2 percent lower than Rose. Wall posted a PER of 15.85 as a rookie, Rose 16.05, and Westbrook 15.20. I don't know where you are getting your winshare stats. Wall had 5.17 WS as a rookie, compared to 5.1 for Rose and 3.8 for Westbrook. That is a very similar TS% and more win shares for Wall BTW.
http://www.hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=John%20WallIn the interest of seeing how their stats compared once Wall was more healthy, I pulled the splits for Rose, Wall and Westbrook after the All star break. Wall was clearly better than Westbrook, and looked like a slightly less efficient player than Rose, but with more production and likely a higher ceiling.
Post All star break rookie stats
Wall: 18.5ppg .410 FG% 7.4 Ast 5.2reb 0.6blk 1.9 stl 7.0FTA .787FT% 4.0 TO
Rose: 16.5ppg .480 FG% 6.3ast 4.5reb 0.2blk 0.8 stl 3.3FTA .785FT% 2.5TO
Westbrook: 15.8ppg .384 FG% 6.0ast 5.2reb 0.2blk 1.2stl 5.1FTA .830FT% 3.7TO
That is more points, assists, rebounds, blocks, steals, and FTA then Rose and Westbrook.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/439 ... e=Fielding