3 reasons John Wall’s return will fix the Washington Wizards
Smoothing out the offense
As good as the Washington Wizards offense has been, and considering the circumstances, it has been pretty good; they’ll no doubt function better with a legitimate point guard.
Wall has averaged no less than 7.6 assists in any season of his career. The way he navigates and sees the floor, combined with his speed make him one of the most dangerous point guards not named Russell Westbrook or Kyrie Irving.
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This year, the Wizards offense has been productive, sure. But it hasn’t been pretty by any means.
There are many situations where Beal takes over, donning his cape and mask for hero ball. And the Wizards have gotten used to this, so much so that at times they just hand him the ball and get out of the way; no cutting, no setting screens, they just look stagnant.
And depending on who’s on the floor, most opponents are more liable to double (and sometimes triple) team Beal, preventing him from getting any reasonable shot off in time. Getting Wall back into the mix offers another threat opponents will have to guard, and add some flow to the offense.
There’s also rookie Rui Hachimura, who has really struggled scoring the ball in the second half. He’ll oftentimes go for 10 or 12, sometimes even 16 points in the first half. And then after the break he’s just, well–absent on that end of the ball.
Getting Hachimura a legitimate facilitator (not to discredit Beal’s career passing) may be the trick to unlocking a full-fledged game from an offensive perspective. For the entire Wizards roster, getting Wall back in the mix will only make things easier in that regard.