Official John Wall Appreciation Thread 2.0

[Upper Decker]

I'm becoming increasingly concerned with Walls inability to drive to the hoop. He's never in attack mode and when he does attack it seems his only move it to jump and look for an outlet shooter on the wing. He's committing himself and hoping to find someone. There's not guile or hestiation to his game, no ability to set up his man, get him on his heels and blow past him. I think he dribbles too high, and discontinues his dribble too often. I think about Isaiah Thomas or Chris Paul. They constantly attack, pull it back out, drive through the lane, and are constantly moving.

It's becoming pretty frustrating because if everyone's healthy he's fringe all-star material.

[Wizardspride]

I'm becoming increasingly concerned with Walls inability to drive to the hoop. He's never in attack mode and when he does attack it seems his only move it to jump and look for an outlet shooter on the wing. He's committing himself and hoping to find someone. There's not guile or hestiation to his game, no ability to set up his man, get him on his heels and blow past him. I think he dribbles too high, and discontinues his dribble too often. I think about Isaiah Thomas or Chris Paul. They constantly attack, pull it back out, drive through the lane, and are constantly moving.

It's becoming pretty frustrating because if everyone's healthy he's fringe all-star material.

Nah. I agree with Glen Consor's assessment.

Right now teams are packing the paint more or less and daring Wall to shoot the jumper.

Granted, he's been making them (for the most) part but you'd still rather have him doing that than getting into the lane and wreaking havoc.

[Upper Decker]

John wall becoming the new Blatche. Promo party with demarcus, now promo party in Houston tonight. Live it up, bro! Love watching you play hung over! Make sure I'm on the invite for the next installment of lap dance Tuesday...

[hands11]

I'm becoming increasingly concerned with Walls inability to drive to the hoop. He's never in attack mode and when he does attack it seems his only move it to jump and look for an outlet shooter on the wing. He's committing himself and hoping to find someone. There's not guile or hestiation to his game, no ability to set up his man, get him on his heels and blow past him. I think he dribbles too high, and discontinues his dribble too often. I think about Isaiah Thomas or Chris Paul. They constantly attack, pull it back out, drive through the lane, and are constantly moving.

It's becoming pretty frustrating because if everyone's healthy he's fringe all-star material.

That's what good PGs do. That move left then right forward/backward. They are always probing the defense, moving it, and looking for angles. Like Nick Calathes did tonight.

One person can not guard them. It takes a team scheme. It take bigs helping. But the primary PG has to do their part and get over the screens and recover.

That was down right shameful that Nick Calathes out played Wall like that.

Two terrible games from Wall back to back.

[hands11]

I'm becoming increasingly concerned with Walls inability to drive to the hoop. He's never in attack mode and when he does attack it seems his only move it to jump and look for an outlet shooter on the wing. He's committing himself and hoping to find someone. There's not guile or hestiation to his game, no ability to set up his man, get him on his heels and blow past him. I think he dribbles too high, and discontinues his dribble too often. I think about Isaiah Thomas or Chris Paul. They constantly attack, pull it back out, drive through the lane, and are constantly moving.

It's becoming pretty frustrating because if everyone's healthy he's fringe all-star material.

Nah. I agree with Glen Consor's assessment.

Right now teams are packing the paint more or less and daring Wall to shoot the jumper.

Granted, he's been making them (for the most) part but you'd still rather have him doing that than getting into the lane and wreaking havoc.

Nick Calathes had several layups. How did he manage that ?

[Illmatic21]

I'm becoming increasingly concerned with Walls inability to drive to the hoop. He's never in attack mode and when he does attack it seems his only move it to jump and look for an outlet shooter on the wing. He's committing himself and hoping to find someone. There's not guile or hestiation to his game, no ability to set up his man, get him on his heels and blow past him. I think he dribbles too high, and discontinues his dribble too often. I think about Isaiah Thomas or Chris Paul. They constantly attack, pull it back out, drive through the lane, and are constantly moving.

It's becoming pretty frustrating because if everyone's healthy he's fringe all-star material.

That's what good PGs do. That move left then right forward/backward. They are always probing the defense, moving it, and looking for angles. Like Nick Calathes did tonight.

One person can not guard them. It takes a team scheme. It take bigs helping. But the primary PG has to do their part and get over the screens and recover.

That was down right shameful that Nick Calathes out played Wall like that.

Two terrible games from Wall back to back.

Wall isn't nearly shifty enough with his handle. I don't know how no one has coached him on this.

He dribbles way too high in tight spaces, and carries the ball all the time (he's lucky they don't call that much these days, honestly he carries 5+ times per game). He'll make one or two obvious combination moves then tries to bully his way forward ,and usually gets cut off by any defender with decent footspeed.

If he made a concerted effort to dribble lower and quicker in the lane, he'd be so much more difficult to guard. It's not a height/size thing because I've seen guys like Dragic, Westbrook, Rose make those shifty moves in the paint.

[jivelikenice]

6 free throw attempts the last two games combined and he's averaging a career low in attempts per game. He's having a very good season and I won't let two poor games in a row change my opinion on that, but i don't think he's maximizing his potential. I just don't think Randy is the right guy to get it out of him. I'm not blaming Randy for John's inexplicable lack of aggression at times, but maybe he needs someone who brings instant credibility to the table. Would John play like this with George Karl on the bench? I don't know for sure but I think a Karl type would demand more from him nightly and would get it....and at the least would have pulled him when he was playing this lethargically. There was no reason to put John back in the game with 3 minutes to go tonight. He should have let Temple finish it and sent a message...

[Wizardspride]

I'm becoming increasingly concerned with Walls inability to drive to the hoop. He's never in attack mode and when he does attack it seems his only move it to jump and look for an outlet shooter on the wing. He's committing himself and hoping to find someone. There's not guile or hestiation to his game, no ability to set up his man, get him on his heels and blow past him. I think he dribbles too high, and discontinues his dribble too often. I think about Isaiah Thomas or Chris Paul. They constantly attack, pull it back out, drive through the lane, and are constantly moving.

It's becoming pretty frustrating because if everyone's healthy he's fringe all-star material.

Nah. I agree with Glen Consor's assessment.

Right now teams are packing the paint more or less and daring Wall to shoot the jumper.

Granted, he's been making them (for the most) part but you'd still rather have him doing that than getting into the lane and wreaking havoc.

Nick Calathes had several layups. How did he manage that ?

For the most part that was a result of our bigs not rotating. They were a step late all night.
Nick did a good job using his picks and once he got a a step on Wall there was very little rotation.

But with that being said, John has to be more aggressive.

I understand being a "pass first PG" but there are times I wish he had a little more Gilbert Arenas in him.

And by that I mean Gil's aggressiveness. Gil would take what he wanted, screw that passive "stuff".

That's the next step in his development.

[hands11]

6 free throw attempts the last two games combined and he's averaging a career low in attempts per game. He's having a very good season and I won't let two poor games in a row change my opinion on that, but i don't think he's maximizing his potential. I just don't think Randy is the right guy to get it out of him. I'm not blaming Randy for John's inexplicable lack of aggression at times, but maybe he needs someone who brings instant credibility to the table. Would John play like this with George Karl on the bench? I don't know for sure but I think a Karl type would demand more from him nightly and would get it....and at the least would have pulled him when he was playing this lethargically. There was no reason to put John back in the game with 3 minutes to go tonight. He should have let Temple finish it and sent a message...

Exactly. Time to take the gloves off. Stop babying him. Maybe post AS game things will be different.

Beal has stepped it up the last two games. Sadly as he stepped it up, Wall has gone AWAL

[hands11]

Nah. I agree with Glen Consor's assessment.

Right now teams are packing the paint more or less and daring Wall to shoot the jumper.

Granted, he's been making them (for the most) part but you'd still rather have him doing that than getting into the lane and wreaking havoc.

Nick Calathes had several layups. How did he manage that ?

For the most part that was a result of our bigs not rotating. They were a step late all night.
Nick did a good job using his picks and once he got a a step on Wall there was very little rotation.

But with that being said, John has to be more aggressive.

I understand being a "pass first PG" but there are times I wish he had a little more Gilbert Arenas in him.

And by that I mean Gil's aggressiveness. Gil would take what he wanted, screw that passive "stuff".

That's the next step in his development.

It was part that. You are correct.

Nick Calathes played great. He keep his dribble alive. Always probing. And when the drive wasn't there, he kick it back with a perfect pass to Gasol at the top of the key were he caught it in perfect position to get his shot off. The pass would be considered high to most people but for Gasol its perfect. It would go right to his face where he would catch and shot is like .5 second. Gasols ability to shoot that shot is awesome. With is height, its almost and unstoppable shot. Very little motion to it. Ball never comes down. And he doesn't even have to leave his feet. Its a set shot.

That combination of Nick Calathes probing like that to drive or kick to Gasol is the basis of the entire offense. After that it was posting Zach and Nene and Kevin pretty much handled that. The game was won because of Nick Calathes and it was lost because of Randy and Wall.

After that is was about rebounding and with Gortat in foul trouble Randy needed to turn to Ves who has the length to mix it up with the tall MEM team.

We could have won this one. But that is a really good team they have there in MEM and its well coached.

[Ruzious]

I don't know if it's the coaching/offense or it's Wall, but his FT attempts per 40 have gone down from 7.6 last season to 5.9 this season. That number should be increasing as he approaches his prime. Instead, it's the lowest of his career. Last night exemplified that problem - against Calathes, of all people. Calathes is a good player (Doc nailed it on him.), but there's no way Wall should have a terrible game against him - especially when all they needed was a half decent game from him to win.

[Dat2U]

Nah. I agree with Glen Consor's assessment.

Right now teams are packing the paint more or less and daring Wall to shoot the jumper.

Granted, he's been making them (for the most) part but you'd still rather have him doing that than getting into the lane and wreaking havoc.

Nick Calathes had several layups. How did he manage that ?

For the most part that was a result of our bigs not rotating. They were a step late all night.
Nick did a good job using his picks and once he got a a step on Wall there was very little rotation.

But with that being said, John has to be more aggressive.

I understand being a "pass first PG" but there are times I wish he had a little more Gilbert Arenas in him.

And by that I mean Gil's aggressiveness. Gil would take what he wanted, screw that passive "stuff".

That's the next step in his development.

Problem is if he was aggressive people would have been complaining that he was "out of control" and driving into a brick wall of defenders. I looked at replay of the game closely last night. There weren't any driving lanes. Memphis didn't respect anyone else's driving ability. They shut down lanes for Wall and he and the Wizards didn't have a counter other than passing the ball around the perimeter and taking tough shots or running through Nene in the high post.

This is the type of game where Wall's IQ and maturity would have needed to come into play. He needed to be more patient. He forced some stuff early, got frustrated, then became a passive 4th or 5th wheel for most of the game.

[Higga]

Wall may be wearing down a bit. All-Star break should do him wonders, even if he's competing in a few events.

[hands11]

Nick Calathes had several layups. How did he manage that ?

For the most part that was a result of our bigs not rotating. They were a step late all night.
Nick did a good job using his picks and once he got a a step on Wall there was very little rotation.

But with that being said, John has to be more aggressive.

I understand being a "pass first PG" but there are times I wish he had a little more Gilbert Arenas in him.

And by that I mean Gil's aggressiveness. Gil would take what he wanted, screw that passive "stuff".

That's the next step in his development.

Problem is if he was aggressive people would have been complaining that he was "out of control" and driving into a brick wall of defenders. I looked at replay of the game closely last night. There weren't any driving lanes. Memphis didn't respect anyone else's driving ability. They shut down lanes for Wall and he and the Wizards didn't have a counter other than passing the ball around the perimeter and taking tough shots or running through Nene in the high post.

This is the type of game where Wall's IQ and maturity would have needed to come into play. He needed to be more patient. He forced some stuff early, got frustrated, then became a passive 4th or 5th wheel for most of the game.

Yeah. He does that.

But there is a lot to what people mean when they say more aggressive. Wall doesn't probe keeping his dribble alive like many good PGs do. Wall tries to make a cross over from the perimeter and use straight line speed to the rim or set up a pass. It used to be mostly cross court but now he has some PnR bound pass skills. Its either those two thing or he pulls up. But its all set up from the perimeter.

Other PG do the smaller hesitation, get a step, stop, get an angle, look for a pass .. no.. keep dribble alive and move closer or away thing. Keep moving the D and work the angles. That what Nick Calathes was doing all last night. Always reading the defense and moving it and adjusting. Always looking to pass and find and angle to shot or drive. A couple times he caught them not adjusting and had easy finishing drives from 6 feet out. Its very nuanced. He probably has no idea how the play will end up when he start probing. Wall on the other hand has a pretty good idea what he wants to do when he starts his move.

Wall doesn't have that type of PG game yet to probe. He is getting better at adding skills but having all the athleticism coming up has put that part of his game behind the curve where less athletic player had to learn this stuff much earlier.

Wall looks a ton better then he did when he entered the league but he still has a ways to go.

[Brenice]

I'm becoming increasingly concerned with Walls inability to drive to the hoop. He's never in attack mode and when he does attack it seems his only move it to jump and look for an outlet shooter on the wing. He's committing himself and hoping to find someone. There's not guile or hestiation to his game, no ability to set up his man, get him on his heels and blow past him. I think he dribbles too high, and discontinues his dribble too often. I think about Isaiah Thomas or Chris Paul. They constantly attack, pull it back out, drive through the lane, and are constantly moving.

It's becoming pretty frustrating because if everyone's healthy he's fringe all-star material.

Nah. I agree with Glen Consor's assessment.

Right now teams are packing the paint more or less and daring Wall to shoot the jumper.

Granted, he's been making them (for the most) part but you'd still rather have him doing that than getting into the lane and wreaking havoc.

That's becoming the way to play people you can't defend. You don't to take that shot too much and you don't want to lose confidence because that is all the defense is giving you. You have to be able to make them pay for packing in the paint, from the perimeter. Irregardless, you can't let it effect your confidence.

[Wizardspride]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc- ... -lot-more/

John Wall says Wizards fans ‘deserve a lot more’


John Wall’s first appearance at the All-Star Game will mean lots of questions about his career to date, and about the state of the Wizards franchise. It started as early as Thursday, when ESPN’s Bill Simmons sat for more than 15 minutes with Wall and asked several questions that were no doubt heavily influenced by his friendship with a lifelong tortured D.C. basketball fan.

“What’s your feel for the Washington fans?” Simmons asked. “Because that is one of the most tortured fan bases. I mean, what do they have, one playoff series win in 30 years? They won the title in ’78, and really from the ’80s on, it’s just been one bad break after another. But they love basketball in Washington.”

“Oh yeah, they love it,” Wall agreed. “Every time they they see me before we started this season — my first three years — they [were] like, ‘C’mon, when are y’all gonna gonna start winning, you need to get to the playoffs, you need to take us to the promised land.’ Those fans are dedicated. They come out and support us. At times it got bad when they [were] booing when we [weren't] playing good and losing by 40 and 30 points, but they always stuck with us. And that’s why I said this season was basically for those guys. I think they deserve a lot more. They deserve winning. They deserve us taking care of home-court advantage and getting this team to the playoffs.

“If you had your druthers would you rather be the Wizards or the Bullets?” Simmons also asked.
“I love the Wizards but I like the Bullets,” Wall said, wisely. “I just like the way their jerseys [were] and I like the name. I think a lot of fans love [the Bullets], but I’m a Washington Wizard and I love it.”

[Jimmy Recard]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaVngAVL1Tk[/youtube]

[hands11]

Your 2014 Slam Dunk Contest Winner

[daSwami]

feeling very appreciative right now.

[Illmatic21]

He ended that contest like a boss!! And the dance lmao