The rapid cut, and the beauty of changing hands behind the signature, announced the official return of John Wall! After nearly two years of vacancy, age, and injuries, his physical fitness and ball skills are no longer the stars of the past, and a certain degree of decline can be expected. How much will it help the new club, the Clippers, in the new season? Is it really the “ball possession answer” Los Angeles is looking for?
A preliminary study of John Wall’s performance in the opening season, averaging 11.5 points, 5.7 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game. As a backup ball handler with an asking price of only 6 million, this price made the Clippers a bargain. Against the Spurs on November 19th, although Wall only scored 5 points, he contributed 9 assists in the first quarter, which is a new high for the individual since 2014. The 15 assists in the game is the second time for the Clippers since Chris Paul. milestone. Compared with the previous position in the Wizards, the Clippers do not need Wall to be responsible for scoring, but only need to focus on passing the ball. The defense will not need to worry regarding Wall’s defects. His positive attitude and excellent physique allow him to bypass screens and chase. Guard the ball handler. However… the reality is not as good as it looks on the books.
Even though Wall has repeatedly been on the spotlight of Highlights, advanced data cannot back him up. This season’s net rating is -3.4, excluding Jason Preston, Robert Covington and other players with less time, which is the third worst in the Clippers. In the game once morest the Jazz on November 21st, although the first half was brilliant and led the team to a double-digit lead, there were 6 turnovers and continued to lose control in the second half. The organization failed in the third quarter and vomited all the points Going back, the fourth quarter was directly on the bench. Against the Warriors on November 23, Wall also had the team’s worst plus-minus value of -25, made many unreasonable cut-in shots, and failed to lead his teammates when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were injured.
At the end of June this year, it was reported that the Clippers would sign Wall. I thought he wouldI’m afraid it’s not the speedboat’s “ball control solution”, many fears did come true then. One is that the outside ability is really tragic! This season, he averaged 3.5 three-point shots per game, only 25% of them were shot, 35.3% of mid-range shots, and only 26.9% of emergency stop jump shots. Even this season’s free throw percentage is only 60%, which is the lowest in his career.
Of course, outside accuracy is a shortcoming that should have been expected. On the other hand, Wall has an amazing cutting and destructive ability, and his shooting rate in the restricted area is as high as 75.6%. Averaged 8.1 cuts per game, which is the most by the Clippers following George’s 10.1. It brought a different offensive weapon to this army of jumpers, allowing Wall to enter a one-on-one opportunity battle. Unreasonable odds of scoring two points, or getting to the free throw line.
The biggest problem comes from the conflict between playing habits and the running-in of the Clippers. Wall, who is good at holding the ball for a long time, cannot integrate well into the offensive mode that focuses on conduction. Since the head coach Ty Lue coached, compared with the “super giant” team, the Clippers will not concentrate the ball on a single player. Leonard and George averaged a single ball holding time of around 4 seconds per game. Switching to Wall this season But it came to 5.76 seconds, which may be a relatively low point in his career data, but it is the highest member in recent years in the Clippers. It is not only longer than Rajon Rondo (4.84) in the 2020-21 season, but also longer than last season’s indiscriminate shooting king Reggie Jackson (5.44) is longer.
For example, in the ball above, Wall’s singles breakthrough to find Norman Powell was indeed very accurate, but the other four players stopped completely, which is not a play that can be replicated once more and once more, especially following losing the superstar skill, they lack absolute dominance. It will appear monotonous, including the battles once morest the Spurs, Pistons and Jazz. Many of Wall’s mistakes are similar to the offensive mode. If he encounters a team with a more mature team defense, it will turn into a suicide cut.
Once the offensive and defensive rhythm that Wall likes cannot be played, the effectiveness of half-court positional warfare will be greatly halved. However, the Clippers are a team with a slow pace (20th in the PACE league) and few transition fast breaks (17th). Head coach Ty Lue still has some ideas for this, such as the small lineup combination pick-and-roll applied to Rondo, with Wall covering for George, and sliding to the middle distance to play decision-making ability, but it is not currently used as a normal tactic.
Not to blame Wall for sticking to the ball, but because the Clippers’ system cannot hold the ball for a long time and has a lot of pick-and-rolls. He is still used to cutting to find teammates, and he lacks high-quality long-term players when he enters the positional battle (the Clippers only have Zubac as a qualified center). Coordination, secondly, the offensive threat without the ball is far inferior to that of Powell and Jackson. The flow of the ball stops when it is passed back to him once more, and there are very few empty-handed cuts. Often they can only finish in a hasty single, rather than continuing to pass the ball to tear the defense. , Even if there is a gap on the outside line, it cannot hit.
John Wall’s struggle on the offensive end is not caused by one side. In addition to being more stable and reducing unnecessary shots, I believe that Wall, who is experienced and has an excellent personality, can gradually improve. Another reason is that the Clippers started the season quite badly. In addition to facing the main injury problems such as Leonard and George, the performance of the original players is not as good as before. I am afraid that it is not enough to talk regarding the overall run-in. This team is still in the warm-up stage. . The recent return of Leonard to the team has brought regarding changes on both ends of the offense and defense. At that time, Wall’s role and usage may have a different appearance.
In my mind, Lonzo Ball will be the ideal ball-handling system for the Clippers. In addition to being capable of the three-point line, he can also display the ability to connect and organize without holding a lot of balls. The size of the big one is completely suitable for the Clippers’ defensive front. . The young ball handler Jason Preston currently honing in the G League has somewhat similar playing style characteristics, but his physical condition is far below the average. Whether he can rely on his golf quotient to adapt to a higher level of offensive and defensive rhythm will be a major challenge in his career , can’t expect to make a contribution in the NBA in the short term.
Further reading:
When Luke Kennard can’t find a slot?It may be a long road to rehabilitation and running-in