John Wall is Saving the Washington Wizards

John Wall has been saving the Washington Wizards since the beginning of the season. It’s time Washington saves him.

The Washington Wizards are rising up the standings with a perfectly timed push for the postseason. Since falling to 26-30, the Wizards have gone 9-5 to pull back to .500 and move within 1.5 games of the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.

All the cliches in the world will tell you that it’s a team effort, and while it’s never been a 1-on-5 game, one can’t help but acknowledge the facts: John Wall is saving the Washington Wizards.

Washington has been active for all 70 of Washington’s games in 2015-16, playing an instrumental role in every one of their victories. Whether he’s been scoring, facilitating, or making plays on defense, Wall has been the life source of everything positive for Randy Wittman‘s crew.

The numbers tell that revealing story, and not just the averages one would traditionally revert to acknowledging. Both in the basic and advanced metrics, as well as numbers provided by his teammates, a story is very easily told: Washington is relevant because of Wall’s resilience.

The question is, how is he getting it done?

20 and 10

More goes into being a star at the NBA level than statistics, but two favorable numbers in the pursuit of stardom are 20 and 10. That’s most commonly a combination of either 20 points and 10 rebounds, or 20 points and 10 assists—marks that are often utilized as barometers for star-caliber play.

After flirting with the marks in 2014-15, a season during which he averaged 17.6 points and 10.0 assists per game, Wall has met the 20-and-10 standard in 2015-16.

Wall is currently averaging 20.2 points, 10.0 assists, 4.9 rebounds, 1.9 steals, 0.8 block, and 1.5 3-point field goals made per game. Since December 1, Wall is averaging 21.2 points, 10.7 assists, 5.3 rebounds, 1.9 steals, and 1.5 3-point field goals made.

His efficiency has declined slightly, but that can be accredited to his increased workload and the injuries sustained by his supporting cast.

In their absence, Wall has overcome the slight dip in field goal percentage by doing a bit of everything for his team in need.

It’s also worth noting that he’s dramatically improved his jump shot since a season ago, jumping from 30.0 percent shooting from 3-point range in 2014-15 to 34.7 percent in 2015-16.

For all of Wall’s statistical brilliance, this all comes back to the numbers Washington most heavily depends upon: 20 and 10. For starters, Basketball-Reference.com reports that Wall is on pace to join Chris Paul, Russell Westbrook and Deron Williams as the only players to average at least 20.0 points and 10.0 assists since Tim Hardaway in 1992-93.

Beyond that incredible distinction is the harsh reality that Washington needs Wall to produce at a superstar level in order to have even the slightest of chances at reaching the postseason.

Wall is The Wizards

John Wall averaging 20-plus points and 10-plus assists is impressive, but simply knowing the numbers isn’t enough to understand their significance. For instance, Washington is 17-15 when Wall scores at least 20 points and 18-20 when he doesn’t.

More importantly, Washington is 26-19 when Wall records at least 10 assists and 9-16 when he fails to.

In other words, when Wall successfully creates for his teammates, Washington is a postseason-caliber squad. Based on win percentage, 26-19 translates to a 47-35 record in an 82-game season, which would be good for the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference if all records were to hold.

That record has been heavily influenced by a recent stretch during which Wall has helped Washington become one of the most dominant home teams in the NBA.

As for the 9-16 record when Wall doesn’t record at least 10 assists, Washington’s win percentage translates to a record of 30-52 when rounding up.

For further perspective, Wall is No. 4 in the NBA in assist percentage—a number that measures the number of a team’s field goals are assisted by said player. He checks in at an obscene 44.6 percent, creates an average of 24.3 points via assists, and scores 20.2 points himself—good for 44.5 points created per game.

In other words, if Washington were to make five field goals, Wall would have scored or assisted on at least two of them. That, ladies and gentlemen, is value.

How to Seal the Deal

It’s been established that John Wall is the man responsible for the Washington Wizards, No. 11 in the NBA in points per game, being as solid as they’ve been offense. In order to close the 1.5-game gap between it and the playoffs, however, Washington will need more than just Wall’s brilliance.

The Wizards will need the supporting cast to step up and shoulder its fair share of the load—something that injuries have prevented key players from doing.

Bradley Beal has missed 25 games, Nene Hilario has been sidelined for 24, and Gary Neal went down for the year after 40 appearances. The injury list goes on, as Marcin Gortat missed six games, Otto Porter Jr. was out for seven, and, while not necessarily hurt, Markieff Morris wasn’t acquired until the NBA Trade Deadline.

Somewhat healthy and reloaded, Washington must do for Wall what he has done for it: step up.

Washington is No. 19 in the NBA in scoring defense and an only decent No. 14 in defensive efficiency. That puts Wall’s offensive brilliance into perspective, and creates the outline for how Washington can return to postseason glory.

Over the course of the final 12 games, Randy Wittman’s crew must play at a high level defensively, remain healthy, and provide Wall with the supporting fire he needs.

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If Washington fails to do so, it will have let one of the greatest individual seasons in franchise history to go to waste.