Official John Wall Appreciation Thread 2.0

[GhostsOfGil]

[DCZards]

His AMA has been postponed.

http://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1d ... r_tuesday/

Probably because of the Jason Collins thing. He doesn't want all the question to be about gay guys in the NBA and what it's like to have a gay guy in the locker room and stuff like that.

Smart move.

[Dark Faze]

damn, keep us posted

[fishercob]

Porting this over from the Collins thread, lest it get lost in that discussion:

I highly recommend Bill Simmons podcast with Collins from today.

But the last 5 minutes are absolute MUST-listen for Wizards fans.

Simmons is, of course, asking Collins about the Celtics. The conversation comes to Rondo and how he's apparently an unbeatable savant at Connect Four. Collins then says that Rondo's basketball IQ is similarly off the charts -- the sometimes at the end of practice Doc will let them diagram plays and Rondo was really impressive in that regard.

And then, out of nowhere, Collins volunteers that John Wall is similarly gifted when it comes to the mental aspect of basketball. Simmons is shocked (I think his impression was consistent with lots of people's -- that Wall is a great athlete but that his mental game was far behind).

To me this is huge. Insanely huge. I've been Charlie Brown'd so much by this team that even with Wall's amazing second half, I've still had a bit of doubt about his true ceiling, the sustainability of this production, etc. But to hear from Collins -- unprompted -- that Wall, at 22 is being lauded for his mind the same way the 27 year old Rondo is? Well that's just amazing.

Collins also gives major dap to Okafor for his leadership and intelligence. He and Simmons seem to agree that the organization is headed in the right direction and that the culture change that has taken place was both profound and necessary.

So, that's good stuff.

[dobrojim]

good call Fish.

I was about to quote you over here...

nice points made about Wall and I'm glad to hear them.

Lets also remember there was similar talk about Wall having an exceptional
BBIQ earlier this season when it was revealed that Wall would call out opp
plays (from the bench) before the Asst coaches had them.

Assuming Wall's end of season improvement in jump shooting is the new normal,
he's clearly a franchise player and a top 10 or better player in the league.

[pancakes3]

If indeed Wall has the IQ, and he clearly has retained the athleticism, then all Wall should be doing this summer is shoot 3's. Run a few laps to maintain the cardio, but just shoot 3's for hours on end. Pull ups, catch-and-shoots, off screens, fadeaways... just shoot. Screw the midrange jumper. 3's and layups. That's the model that Arenas developed and Harden is now perfecting.

[dobrojim]

agreed 'cakes

becoming better than avg at 3s would really be helpful

but I still wouldn't neglect the inbetween shots either

[miller31time]

Keep in mind, when recommending Wall shoot exclusively 3's, that he is a high-usage point guard -- not an off-ball spot-up player.

Wall has the ball in his hands a lot so there aren't many opportunities to shoot rhythm 3's. He get's his points off the dribble so the mid-range jumper is what I believe he should work on perfecting.

Sure, the occasional 3 wouldn't hurt but I don't think he'll ever be the kind of player who walks up court and launches a pull-up 3, ala Steve Nash.

[Dark Faze]

Obviously Wall needs to work on his shot this summer, but I truly believe improvement for him is based completely on confidence. If he just keeps taking the shots he took at the end of this season then the results are going to be there.

I'm shocked to realize that John Wall suddenly learned how to handle the ball, run a half court offense, attack the rim without taking huge falls, etc...all in just 1-2 seasons. His improvement this year was remarkable..

[nate33]

If indeed Wall has the IQ, and he clearly has retained the athleticism, then all Wall should be doing this summer is shoot 3's. Run a few laps to maintain the cardio, but just shoot 3's for hours on end. Pull ups, catch-and-shoots, off screens, fadeaways... just shoot. Screw the midrange jumper. 3's and layups. That's the model that Arenas developed and Harden is now perfecting.

It's a tough call.

In theory, you want a player that exclusively shoots 3's and layups. James Harden is the perfect role model. Indeed, the Houston offense in general is a good role model. But I'm not sure if it's quite so simple. The first question is, is it more likely that Wall will become a 50% shooter from midrange, or a 33% from 3-point range?

The second question is, who are his big men? If Wall has an athletic finisher as a big man, somebody like Chandler or McGee, then he's better off running pick-and-rolls rather than pick-and-pops. And pick-and-rolls work a little better when you can run them from farther out and create space. In that scenario, Wall would be better off developing the 3. But if Wall has floor-bound big men who prefer to catch-and-shoot, then he's better off running the pick-and-pops closer to the basket so the big man can pop out to hit the 17 footer. In that scenario, Wall is better off honing his midrange game.

We currently have the latter set up. Nene and Okafor aren't alley-oop threats, so they're better off with the pick-and-pop. Wall should therefore work on his midrange shot.

Of course, if Wall develops a 3-point shot with a pretty quick release off the dribble, then we won't need a pick setter at all. He'd be able to take guys one-on-one like Arenas did and Harden does. I think he's quite a ways away from being effective at this though.

[dobrojim]

I think tightening up his handle should also be an area
that he would be well served focusing on.

[Dark Faze]

I think his handle looked a lot better once he started focusing on running PNR and half court sets.

It looked terrible a lot of time when he was just driving at the basket out of control. He should still work on it but I don't know if its as much of an issue as we thought it was a year ago.

[hands11]

If indeed Wall has the IQ, and he clearly has retained the athleticism, then all Wall should be doing this summer is shoot 3's. Run a few laps to maintain the cardio, but just shoot 3's for hours on end. Pull ups, catch-and-shoots, off screens, fadeaways... just shoot. Screw the midrange jumper. 3's and layups. That's the model that Arenas developed and Harden is now perfecting.

It's a tough call.

In theory, you want a player that exclusively shoots 3's and layups. James Harden is the perfect role model. Indeed, the Houston offense in general is a good role model. But I'm not sure if it's quite so simple. The first question is, is it more likely that Wall will become a 50% shooter from midrange, or a 33% from 3-point range?

The second question is, who are his big men? If Wall has an athletic finisher as a big man, somebody like Chandler or McGee, then he's better off running pick-and-rolls rather than pick-and-pops. And pick-and-rolls work a little better when you can run them from farther out and create space. In that scenario, Wall would be better off developing the 3. But if Wall has floor-bound big men who prefer to catch-and-shoot, then he's better off running the pick-and-pops closer to the basket so the big man can pop out to hit the 17 footer. In that scenario, Wall is better off honing his midrange game.

We currently have the latter set up. Nene and Okafor aren't alley-oop threats, so they're better off with the pick-and-pop. Wall should therefore work on his midrange shot.

Of course, if Wall develops a 3-point shot with a pretty quick release off the dribble, then we won't need a pick setter at all. He'd be able to take guys one-on-one like Arenas did and Harden does. I think he's quite a ways away from being effective at this though.

Salient analysis.

[dobrojim]

I think his handle looked a lot better once he started focusing on running PNR and half court sets.

It looked terrible a lot of time when he was just driving at the basket out of control. He should still work on it but I don't know if its as much of an issue as we thought it was a year ago.

Agreed. He should work on it simply because it's still something that
could be better.

BTW - I still feel like Wall should work hard on shooting 3s even though
this won't be a major aspect of his game as the team's facilitator. It's
just that shooting 3s has become a huge part of the modern NBA game.

[Knighthonor]

I say those days of run and tumbles was practice for his star level flop calls in the future. Put that to work Wall.

[Zonkerbl]

Knowing when to pull back on the one-on-four fastbreak will help Wall's turnover numbers more than any improvements in ball-handling.

[pancakes3]

I hear the same lobe that handles connect 4 also governs the 1-on-4 fast break decision making.

[nate33]

Knowing when to pull back on the one-on-four fastbreak will help Wall's turnover numbers more than any improvements in ball-handling.

I haven't noticed a pattern of Wall turning it over on the fast break, even the 1 on 4 breaks. In general, I think it's really good when Wall pushes the ball. He doesn't always score, but he usually ends up with a higher percentage shot that we are likely to get in the half-court offense.

[Knighthonor]

Hey what did Wall do to work on his shot?

Is there a drive training equivalent that the wiz can put Beal in. Beal with Handle would simply be a beast of a team. Maybe better than OKC if Webster pull off another career season.

[hands11]

Knowing when to pull back on the one-on-four fastbreak will help Wall's turnover numbers more than any improvements in ball-handling.

Wall dramatically improved his TO numbers already when he started hitting from outside.

For the year he was TOV% 15.3 vs 19.2 last year. And that is including a late start the season where he was out of shape and rusty while the rest of the lead was already in a rhythm.

When you slice it down to when he got in shape and turned the corner, that number dropped to even more.

From 3/1/13 to the end of the season which was 26 games, he was TOV% 11.9 on USG 30.1 and AST% 41.6 in 36mins a game.

Those are outstanding numbers.