Washington Wizards: 5 keys to series vs. Raptors

1. John Wall must distribute the wealth

The Washington Wizards are a solid basketball team; it’s getting them to play like it that’s a different story. Washington has had its fair share of adversity, injuries and storylines this season. The reality is this team plays a whole lot better when it’s not so reliant on just Bradley Beal.

Beal is a great scorer, don’t get it twisted. It just seems at times, the focus is on Beal so much other players lose their rhythm in the process. Markieff Morris and Marcin Gortat are two players feeling the ill-effects of that this season. Morris is averaging 11.5 points per game, down from 14.0 last season. Gortat is averaging 8.4 points per game, down from 10.8 per contest in 2016-17.

As the floor general, some of this is on John Wall. Granted, he only appeared in 41 games, but Wall still managed to average fewer assists per game this season with essentially the same starting lineup. Wall averaged 10.7 assists per game in 2016-17 and 9.6 per game in 2017-18.

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It’s also worth noting Wall is attempting fewer shots per game as well. With his reliance on the talent around him showing, Wall needs to distribute the wealth on offense to set a different tone in the [layoffs. At times, the Wizards settle and get shot-happy, which gives teams easier rim runs in the process. If anybody needs to get shot-happy on Washington, it’s John Wall. He just needs to call the shots as the leader.