The challenge with analyzing some players is that their role gets in the way. We as sports fanatics and analysts see things for what they are, not what they could be. With Bradley Beal, that makes grading his skill level challenging. Beal can be a great player with a wide-ranging skill set, but we rarely get to see it because his role tends to be unique playing next to All-Star point guard John Wall.
But this season, partly due to an injury to Wall, his role is different. It’s one that is catered more to him, and he’s making the most of it; it may be paving a path that could land Beal in Los Angeles for the 2018 NBA All-Star game.
The ever-confident Beal has had opportunities to be himself this season in Washington both with and without his running mate in Wall. He has been known as both an aggressive attacker with the ball in his hands and a deadly spot-up maestro without the rock. Alongside Wall for most of his career, he does more of the latter. This season, he has done a lot of both, and at superb levels.
Bradley Beal has his turnover percentage down to 9.3 percent, an obscenely good number for how often the ball is in his hands; his usage rate is up to 29 percent. Both of those figures are career highs, showcasing that Beal has truly put the handling in ball-handling this season.
He’s bouncing and slinging the rock with unheralded precedence. He’s dribbling 3.11 times per touch of the ball, up from just 2.48 in 2016-17, and he’s passing 39.2 times every night, a leap from 31.3 times per game the season prior. That’s a lot of words to say that Bradley Beal has become a creator. He’s a decision maker, an attacker, a facilitator, and yet, he’s still an efficient scorer not turning the ball over.
That combination creates an amazing player. Beal’s 54.5 true shooting percentage is actually a three-year low, and yet it still is near league average. And he’s doing that while improving in essentially all other facets of the game.
One of Beal’s biggest strengths this season has been as the ball handler in pick and roll. Thanks to some burst off the dribble and smooth ability to pull-up, Beal is in the 78.6 percentile on pick and rolls as the ball handler, and the Wizards garner .94 points per possession in these scenarios.
He has added a read to his attacking that he never had before. After rounding the screen here and getting the switch in his favor, he attacks the middle of the lane to draw the help. As soon as the Phoenix Suns send someone at him to cut off the drive, he flips it over to Kelly Oubre Jr. for an open three:
When scorers add that cerebral, chess-like instinct to their game, they become just so dangerous. It helps in capacities in both the passing and scoring variety. You just saw how it works for passing, but scoring can involve many more decisions.
His shot selection hasn’t been great. He is taking more mid-rangers and long twos than last season, and he is shooting poorly on such shots, but his overall decision making as a scorer in the pick and roll has been excellent. He takes this screen from Marcin Gortat and lets his mind take over. A nasty crossover lets him get by DeAndre Jordan, and he ferociously attacks the middle. He then fakes a pass to get the Clippers to drop off of him and create space, which he uses to rise up and score:
His dribbling, as referred to earlier, has opened up a lot for him. That clip showcased Beal dribbling six times, and when he puts the ball on the floor that many times, he is at his most dangerous. When dribbling more than six times, Beal has an effective field goal percentage of 50 percent, very efficient coming off of the dribble.
That showed itself in Beal’s time without John Wall. Wall missed 8 games with an inflamed left knee, and Beal took over as the primary ball handler in these scenarios. Many of his improvements were showcased in these games. The Wizards went 4-5 with Beal at the helm, with six of those games coming on the road, and Beal was proficient as a leader and primary ball handler.
In these eight games, Beal averaged 34 minutes per contest. In those minutes, he parlayed a stat line of 23.8 points, 3.3 assists and two rebounds, excellent numbers for anyone acting in a new role.
He was able to get to the line for 5.7 free throw attempts per game in this span. Beal has not been great at that throughout his career, his lifetime average is just 3.4 per game, so that figure is impressive and shows more of his improvement.
His passing and dribbling combined with his basketball IQ improvements are allowing Bradley Beal to be all he can be. That combination allowed him to go off for a career-high 51 points against the Portland Trail Blazers on December 5th, his best game of this season and possibly of his whole career.
Beal is dribbling and not turning the ball over. He’s passing the ball and setting up his teammates for points (did I forget to mention he is currently posting a career-high assist percentage?). His scoring has been at career levels even with his shot not falling. And he’s doing all that while leading the Washington Wizards to wins with him at the helm.
Other Eastern Conference guards might have a case but Bradley Beal sounds like an all-star to me.
