Washington Wizards Player Grades: Week 5

Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

John Wall: 15.3 PPG (37.8 FG%), 5.0 RPG, 9.7 APG, 1.7 SPG

Let’s talk about one of my pet peeves here for a minute. It seems like at the end of every quarter, the Washington Wizards run the same play – John Wall ISO, leading to the Wizards point guard dribbling around aimlessly for 15 seconds or so and then bricking a jumper. This is bad. It’s lazy, never works, and is costing the Wizards a couple buckets a game that they could actually be getting if they decided to run something a little more involved.

John Wall averaged over five turnovers a game and shot under 40%, and this week was a reminder that no matter how awesome John Wall may be, he’s far from perfect. The silver lining? We finally saw the return of Wall’s three-point shot, which had been absent for the first ten games or so: Wall made multiple threes in all three games the Wizards played this week, and shot over 50% from long range.

Less end-of-quarter ISOs, more John Wall threes. That should about cover it.

Grade: C+

Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Bradley Beal: 13.3 PPG (39.5 FG%), 3.3 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.0 SPG

A very un-Panda-like week from Bradley Beal saw him go only 1-8 from three-point range, as Atlanta and Cleveland brought a ton of pressure on him and gave him few clean looks at the basket.

Nene’s absence, for however long that will last, should have an adverse effect on Brad – without the interior threat that Nene posts, teams will feel more free to harry Beal on the outside, and we certainly saw DeMarre Carroll hound Beal every moment they were on the court together on Tuesday.

Luckily, as we see Beal’s offensive repertoire continue to expand, he’s getting more and more able to still put points on the board even if he isn’t getting wide open looks from the perimeter.

Grade: C

Next: The Truth Begins To Emerge