Rose Vs Wall Game-Thread 7PM EST

[tontoz]

How is Wall going to make the other guys better, by getting them the ball when they are open? that doesn't work too well when they can't make open shots. He is averaging 7 assists on a team
full of guys who can't shoot. It's not like he is a reluctant passer.

In recent games Wall has cut down on his out of control drives to the basket.Over the last two weeks he is shooting nearly 90% from the foul line. He is trying to get better but until he and the other guys can make open shots any comments he makes positive or negative aren't going to amount to a hill of beans.

[sfam]

If his shot remains this bad, he is a liability on offense at either forward position.

On this, we totally agree.

To be a starter, he must either learn to shoot, or fill out to become a center. I think him adding 30 pounds of muscle is more likely than him developing a reliable perimeter shot.

On this, we disagree.

[sfam]

Mack is an ordinary athlete who will only make an impact if stars are around him. Wall has the gifts to be a star. He's way more athletic and far more capable of putting up huge numbers than Mack. Wall is a dominating player.

sfam, you and I agree 100% on Wall. He's trying too hard. He's playing all out too much of the time.

The one area he does not understand, however, is how much a bad shot kills a team and undermines his ability to lead effectively. Just like in pickup games, the short, slow, fundamentally sound guy who's willing to set a pick, play positional defense, and go for the doggone layup instead of the hero three is going to win more often than not.

The main thing that bothers me about Wall is his decision making.

And so the question really is this: Is Wall's poor decision making a function of a number of short term factors which have led to an incredibly frustrated player, or are they indicative of a longer term lack of BBIQ. To me, in watching the games, it seems clear that its the former. I say this because his bad decision making seems to go in spurts. It's like he all of a sudden, after playing relatively sound basketball, the frustration mounts and he says, "F-it! I'm gonna take this damn thing over and show them how its done!" If Wall regularly sucked in his decision making, more like we've seen with Blatche, for instance, I would be worried, but that's not what I'm seeing.

[montestewart]

How is Wall going to make the other guys better, by getting them the ball when they are open? that doesn't work too well when they can't make open shots. He is averaging 7 assists on a team
full of guys who can't shoot. It's not like he is a reluctant passer.

In recent games Wall has cut down on his out of control drives to the basket.Over the last two weeks he is shooting nearly 90% from the foul line. He is trying to get better but until he and the other guys can make open shots any comments he makes positive or negative aren't going to amount to a hill of beans.

I agree with pretty much all of this. For the time being, he doesn't really have reliable jump shooting options, but his bigs are a little more reliable by comparison. He has to look for everyone, but as long as the team as whole does such a poor job on offense of moving, helping, creating space, and hitting outside shots, his options are limited, and often bulling his way to the basket looks like the best option to me too. I can see at least some of why he is where he is, but he is the team's leader, and as such, blame will fall on him.

I brought a friend to the Bulls game, a longtime but infrequent basketball watcher. He asked a lot of smart questions about the Wizards, one of them being why both Wall and Mack repeatedly failed to spot open options down low. It's not that McGee, Booker, Seraphin are powerful offensive weapons, but on the current team, they seem the best but frequently ignored options (and sometimes it's the bigs own lack of awareness). Sure, the poor shooters allow tighter defense inside, but the bigs have (if nothing else) some brawn and athleticism. He should look for them more. My friend also asked why the Wizards shooters take so many silly, off balance or contested shots. We know the answer there. I shrugged my shoulders a lot.

Wizards currently have the 2nd lowest FG%, 3rd lowest 3P%, 2nd lowest EFG%, and lowest ORtg. Wall may be able to be a great player in the Rondo/Kidd vein, or he may just be fast and not much else. I doubt the latter, but you can't really tell on this horribly constructed team, and he needs to work on parts of his game regardless. Were there not a lockout, he might have used his summer more constructively, working on his shot and spending more time with his teammates. I'd like to see how he handles the rest of the year and what he works on this summer.

[LyricalRico]

not to be a smartass, but it's also easy when your pg has more to his game than being really really fast.

But this is also true:

Those bashing Wall and those defending him seem to agree on at least one thing--he's almost certain to get better with experience, hard work and better teammates.

I think we also agree that no matter what happens for the rest of the year, he's not going anywhere. So we might as well cheer!



(But if he doesn't improve, all bets are off when I'm using the Checker this summer. )

[W. Unseld]

A thousand pardons if this has been quoted from Wall already but this is somewhat disturbing, the Wall quote comes from Truth About It:
When asked after the game, and in light of Rose’s performance, about the difficulties of developing decision-making as a point guard (when to look for yourself, when to look for teammates), Wall said, “It’s not hard when you got guys like Kyle Korver that can make shots, and you can run off down screens and a guy like Carlos Boozer that can pick-and-pop, and Luol Deng and guys you can run plays for that make shots and create their own shots, it’s kind of easy.”

Byrd calling his team sissies is saying "we aren't playing hard enough" vs. Wall insinuating that his teammates aren't any good. Jordan and the Stacy King example was in private, Wall was in public to the media. I'm not throwing him under the bus but I'd like to see him be a floor leader and maximize what he gets out of the guys before complaining to the media in hopes of being brought a new team. If he wants to give them the MJ treatment in practice by all means do it but that would be leadership and this doesn't strike me as leadership unless he's playing Phil Jackson mind games which I doubt.

[Wizardspride]

not to be a smartass, but it's also easy when your pg has more to his game than being really really fast.

This is the truth.

[tontoz]

Byrd calling his team sissies is saying "we aren't playing hard enough" vs. Wall insinuating that his teammates aren't any good. Jordan and the Stacy King example was in private, Wall was in public to the media.

Jordan not only called out his teamates in the media, he did the same with his GM. He said the Bulls would be better if he was the GM. He even called out his teamates once when he was accepting the MVP award.

Some people might give MJ a pass since he was so accomplished but my question is how good do you have to be to call a spade a spade?

I'd like to see him be a floor leader and maximize what he gets out of the guys before complaining to the media in hopes of being brought a new team

This time last season Wall was very reluctant to attack in the half court. He was deferrential to the other players to a fault. I think he realized quickly that wasn't going to work.

[tontoz]

not to be a smartass, but it's also easy when your pg has more to his game than being really really fast.

This is the truth.

Yeah it isn't like he is hitting the boards, blocking shots, getting steals, making foul shots...... oh wait.

[DCZards]

Yeah it isn't like he is hitting the boards, blocking shots, getting steals, making foul shots...... oh wait.

Yup, those, like Sam Smith, who say that Wall is nothing more than a track star playing basketball seem to be absolutely blind to the awesome numbers he's putting up in those categories you mention.

[dobrojim]

to get back to the topic of the thread, I re-watched the game last
night and gotta say we were hosed pretty consistently by the zebras.

Clearly we coulda/woulda/shoulda played better as well.

Having dray out of the lineup for an extended period should
allow the team to compete more consistently.

[dobrojim]

I almost forgot

Was that Chris on the jumboscreen at the end of the 3rd Q?

Looked familiar.

[bulletproof_32]

^Yup, that was me.

[dobrojim]

(I thought so)

but not in your regular seat

BTW - did you know you can see yourself on the telescreen in the TV
broadcast?....that's how I remembered seeing you while at the game