A conversation about the Wizards (Grantland article)

[montestewart]

To put things in perspective in March of last season Walls TS% was 57.3% and his ORTG was 117.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... lits/2013/


Isaiah Thomas' career averages are 57.4% TS and 115 ORTG.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... ais02.html

Obviously Wall is a better defender than Thomas but i think people are getting a bit carried away about Wall's hot streak last season.

Nivek had some good posts putting that streak into perspective. It was a pretty amazing stretch. Maybe his TS% was merely equal to Isaiah Thomas' career average, but he was scoring 22 ppg with 8 apg. Thomas' numbers have been virtually the same through his career, while Wall's gradually trend upward, still far short of Thomas, but I think there is some positive progression.

[tontoz]

Wall's jumper improved this season. Yes, statistically speaking he shot worse primarily because he took far too many long and midrange jumpers, but his shot itself continues to improve. Better form, fewer downright bricks.

From 10-22 feet Wall shot 36.6%, fractionally worse than last year. He just needs to cut down drastically on these attempts. He attempted 6.8 of these shots per game.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... rder_by=fg


Kevin Durant took 7.1 of these shots per game shooting 44.3%. Wall has no business taking so many of these shots.

[nate33]

One of the reasons Wall made little statistical improvement this year is that he stopped getting to the free throw line. That's because he stopped taking the ball to the rim. Last year, 46% of his shots were from the lane, 48% were long 2's, and 6% were from 3 point range.

This year, 35% of his shots were from the lane, 42% were long 2's, and 23% were from 3-point range. I like that he took more 3's, but the problem is that most of his 3-pointers replaced his shots from the paint. If he shot 46% of his attempts from the paint like last year, and 23% from behind the arc like this year, that would leave him with just 31% of his attempts from long 2. That would be a good shot distribution.

It'll be real interesting to see how Wall approaches the playoffs. Wall may have dialed back the number of forays into the paint because he was trying to avoid injury during the 82-game grind. We'll see if he can turn on the switch and play a little more aggressively now that the games matter.

[tontoz]

It'll be real interesting to see how Wall approaches the playoffs. Wall may have dialed back the number of forays into the paint because he was trying to avoid injury during the 82-game grind. We'll see if he can turn on the switch and play a little more aggressively now that the games matter.

That is definitely a possibility, especially given the suck emanating from his backups.

[DCZards]

It'll be real interesting to see how Wall approaches the playoffs. Wall may have dialed back the number of forays into the paint because he was trying to avoid injury during the 82-game grind. We'll see if he can turn on the switch and play a little more aggressively now that the games matter.

That is definitely a possibility, especially given the suck emanating from his backups.

Wall's game did change this year with fewer forays into the paint and I do think it had something to do with getting knocked to the floor so often in the past.

JW has a better backup now in "the professor." The kind of smarts and experience you want at playoff time.