Getting Everybody to Eat

When the Wizards announced Wall would be missing two months at the end of January 2018 many people assumed they’d begin to free-fall through the standings and likely miss the playoffs. This was not the case. The Wizards began playing a brand of basketball that was surprisingly egalitarian. They rattled off 10 wins in their next 13 games and led the NBA in assists. Bradley Beal was able to average 6.7 assists, nearly double his career average. Otto Porter poured in 20 points a game on elite efficiency and the Wizards altered their offense drastically with more off-ball cuts and handoffs. Suddenly, people began to question if Wall’s ball-dominant style of play was best for a team that clearly had other playmakers capable of shouldering some of the responsibility. Then the crash happened. Out of the last 18 games without Wall, the Wizards were only able to win 5. They dropped important games to teams like Hawks, Knicks, Magic, and Bulls. They were bottom 5 in the NBA in scoring during this stretch and nearly everyone on the team shot well below their season average. Beal and Otto, two long range snipers, were shooting 34% and 36% from three respectively. While legitimate questions were raised about Wall’s ball dominance making the Wizards offense too predictable and easy to defend, his value became immensely clear to anyone who suffered through that 18 game span.

Going into the brand new season, there’s plenty the Wizards can do to try and marry Wall’s elite playmaking and ball-dominance with the ability of other ball-handlers such as Beal, Sato, Porter, and Rivers to create opportunity for themselves and others. If Wall commits to taking a small step back and moving off ball, he could have a career season from a scoring efficiency perspective. Wall’s only been assisted on a little over 20% of his career FGs; an incredibly low number comparable to elite isolation scorers like James Harden or Chris Paul. Asked about his ability to adjust to playing off-ball Wall responded, “I’m fine with it because I worked on my game a lot, coming off pin downs, shooting threes.” This is exciting to hear as Wall already shot 42.2%, an elite rate, on catch and shoot threes last year. With an offseason focused on these types of plays and more sets run for him, we could see Wall add another dimension to his game. This can only mean good things for Beal and Otto who have thrived with chances to have the ball in their hands. Dwight Howard’s potential desire for post-ups could throw a wrench in this new free-flowing offense but I’ll address that more in-depth in my next article.

Verdict

The Wizards have the talent and skillsets to run an offense with multiple playmakers and elite off-ball movement. They already seem to have been doing a better job of it in the preseason with Beal bringing the ball up multiple times with Wall on the court and Porter looking as aggressive as we’ve ever seen him. Letting Wall push the pace, a strategy which has made the Wiz an elite team in transition for the past few years will always be a good option, but the Everybody Eats era has happened and Beal and Porter are unlikely to forget it. They showed the ability to shoulder a playmaking load unlike any other teammates Wall has had before now. I believe they can strike a balance and predict the Wizards to be a top three team in the NBA by assists per game and to have the highest offensive rating of any team in the John Wall era.