Why Bradley Beal Makes The Washington Wizards Contenders

Offensive versatility has proven to be inconsistent for the Washington Wizards this season. Through all of their ups and downs, they’ve continued to play quality defense, but at some point the team needs to find ways to generate baskets to put points on the board.

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John Wall has proven himself to be one of the NBA‘s top point guards because of his top-end speed and penetration ability along with his knack for finding the open man both in the halfcourt and in transition.

However, a pure point guard like Wall is only as good as the talent that he has around him.

Someone who is known as a distributor can’t rack up the assists unless he has players on the floor that can knock down open shots. Unfortunately for the Wizards, that has been a bit of a struggle this season, as the team barely boasts a top-20 offense in terms of points per game. Efficiency wise, the team is not much better, only standing 17th in the league.

Sure, veterans like Paul Pierce, Nene and Martell Webster have failed to make the kind of impact that the Wizards hoped they would make on offense, but the real elephant in the room has been star shooting guard Bradley Beal‘s health.

Beal has missed 18 of the team’s 67 games, and the Wizards struggled over that stretch, failing to really be a threat offensively to anyone, even teams that have been out of the playoff race from the start.

A lot of people tend to forget just how good of a player Beal really is. In three years in the league, Beal has averaged 15.5 points per game on 41.7 percent shooting from the field including 40.2 percent from three-point range and 78.6 percent from the free-throw line.

Beal has gotten better at developing more of a mid-range shot and game driving to the basket, but it has been his outside shooting stroke that has propelled this Wizards team since his arrival. Beal’s mechanics on his shot are as clean as can be. In fact, he drew comparisons to Ray Allen coming out of high school and college because of his consistent release and deep range.

He may not be at Allen’s level quite yet, but Beal is certainly on his way, as he has improved his shooting numbers and scoring arsenal every year he’s been in the league. In his first year in the NBA, Beal shot 38.6 percent from three.

Compare that number to his 42 percent shooting this season and it’s obvious that he’s been putting in the work and tweaking his shot anyway he can in order to improve.

Not only has his shot itself gotten better, but he has improved on his ability to read defenses and move off the ball. Beal has become a dangerous curler off of ball screens, something that many famous sharpshooters have been known to do, including Allen and Kyle Korver.

It’s one thing to be a pure spot-up shooter, but being able to move off of the ball and create your own space is key for taking things to the next level. Beal’s handle has also tightened up with the more games he’s played, as he’s getting better creating more shots for himself with the ball in his hands.

Beal is really starting to become more of a scorer than just a one-dimensional shooter. Having someone in the backcourt as athletic and dynamic as Beal is a huge advantage for a pass-first guard like Wall. When Wall and Beal are on the floor together, the Wizards’ offense looks completely different, as they complement each other so well.

Wall is more of an inside scorer and finisher while Beal is perfectly comfortable getting his points out on the perimeter and in transition when playing off of Wall. The two just know how to play with each other and cooperate on the floor, a huge plus for Washington going forward.

Having a multi-talented threat like Beal on offense doesn’t just make the Wizards a dangerous team heading into the playoffs, but an even more formidable squad that is capable of making it to the Eastern Conference Finals and even further.

Not many teams can say they have a backcourt like Washington’s. Beal makes this team a contender, and with him and Wall on the same team, the East better be ready for a fight come postseason time.

*Statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference.

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