The quick cut, and the beauty of the handover behind the signature, heralded the official return of John Wall! After nearly two years of vacation, age and injuries, his fitness and ball skills are no longer the stars of yesteryear, and a certain degree of decline can be expected. How much will the new club, the Clippers, help in the new season? Is this really the “possession response” Los Angeles is looking for?
A preliminary study of John Wall’s performance in the opening season, as he averaged 11.5 points, 5.7 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game. As a backup ball handler with an asking price of just 6 million, this price made the Clippers a steal. Against the Spurs on November 19, even though 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 are the second time for the Clippers since times of Chris Paul milestone. Compared to the previous position in the Wizards, the Clippers do not need Wall to be responsible for the goal, they only need to focus on passing the ball. The defense won’t have to worry about Wall’s shortcomings. His can-do attitude and great physique allow him to get around the screens and chase after the ball carrier. However… the reality is not as beautiful as it seems on the books.
Even though Wall has been in the Highlights spotlight multiple times, the advanced data can’t back it 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 against the Jazz on November 21, although the first half was brilliant and brought the team into double figures, there were 6 turnovers and he continued to lose control in the second half. The organization failed in the third quarter and he threw up all the points. Walking back, the fourth quarter was straight to the bench. Against the Warriors on November 23, Wall also had the team’s worst plus-minus rating of -25, made many unreasonable shots, and failed to lead his teammates when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were injured.
In late June of this year, it was reported that the Clippers would sign WallI’m afraid it’s not the speedboat’s “ball control solution”., then many fears came true. One is that external ability is really tragic! This season, he averaged 3.5 three-point shots per game, of which only 25% were shooting, 35.3% were mid-range shots, and only 26.9% were jump shots This season’s free throw percentage is also only 60%. which is the lowest of his career.
Of course, the external accuracy is a shortcoming that should have been expected, on the other hand, Wall has incredible cutting and destructive ability, and his shot percentage in the restricted area reaches 75.6%. He averaged 8.1 cuts per game, which is the Clippers’ high after George’s 10.1. He brought a different offensive weapon to this army of jumpers, allowing Wall to enter a one-on-one battle of opportunity. Unreasonable odds of scoring two points, or reaching the free throw line.
The biggest problem comes from the conflict between playing habits and the Clippers’ running in: Wall, good at holding the ball for a long time, is unable to integrate well into the offensive mode that focuses on conducting. Since head coach Ty Lue coached, compared to the “supergiants” team, the Clippers will not focus the ball on a single player. Leonard and George average a ball holding time of about 4 seconds per game. But he clocked in at 5.76 seconds, which may be a relatively low point in his career data, but he’s the tallest member in recent years on the Clippers, not just longer than Rajon Rondo (4.84) in 2020-21 season, but even 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 very accurate indeed, but the other four players came to a complete stop, which is not a game that can be replicated over and over again, especially after having lost the superstar ability, lack absolute dominance. It will feel monotonous, including battles against Spurs, Pistons and Jazz. Many of Wall’s mistakes are similar to offensive mode. If he’s up against a team with more mature team defense, he’ll turn into a suicide cut.
Once the offensive and defensive pace that Wall likes can’t be played, the effectiveness of mid-court positional warfare will be significantly halved. However, the Clippers are a team with slow pace (20th in the PACE league) and few fast transitions (17th). Coach Ty Lue still has some ideas for this, like the small pick-and-roll combination of the formation applied to Rondo, with block coverage for George and mid-range sliding to play the decision-making skill, but he doesn’t currently it is used as a normal tactic.
Not to blame Wall for sticking to the ball, but because the Clippers’ system can’t hold the ball long and have a lot of pick-and-rolls, he’s still used to cutting to find teammates and lacks high-players at quality long term when he enters the positional battle (the Clippers only have Zubac as a qualified center). Coordination, secondly, the offensive threat off the ball is far less than that of Powell and Jackson. The flow of the ball stops when he gets passed back to them, and there are very few empty-handed cuts, often just managing to finish off in a hasty single, rather than continuing to pass the ball to tear up the defence, even if there is a void on the outfield. line, he can’t hit.
John Wall’s fight on the offensive side is not caused by one side, in addition to being more stable and reducing unnecessary shooting, I believe that Wall, who has experience and has a very good personality, can gradually improve. Another reason is that the Clippers started the season pretty bad. In addition to dealing with Leonard and George’s major injury problems, the performance of the original players is not as good as before. I fear that it is still far from the general running-in classification. This team is still in the warm-up phase. . Leonard’s recent return to the team has brought about changes in both offense and defense – in that moment, Wall’s role and usage may look different.
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 play streaks and set up without holding a large amount of the ball. the big one is perfectly suited to the Clippers’ defensive front. . Young ball handler Jason Preston, currently honed in the G League, has somewhat similar playing style characteristics, but the physical condition of him is far below average. a major challenge in his career, he can not expect to make a contribution to the NBA in the short term.
Further reading:
When Luke Kennard can’t find a slot? It could be a long road to rehab and break-in
