Here's an example from a game against Orlando earlier this season. He's improved his floater game and has been able to finish through plays with contact this season. He's shooting 43.9 percent in that area this year as opposed to 26.2 percent from that same area last year. He's increased the percentage of shots he's taking in the painted area outside of the restricted area from 8.2 percent last year to 9.9 percent this year. Wall has also drastically improved at playing in the paint. If he's making a concerted effort to shoot higher percentage shots from mid range, then he'll make more of them, hence improving his efficiency. Still, it makes sense why his efficiency in general would improve. That is roughly a jump from Elfrid Payton (31.7 percent from 8-16 feet), to Steph Curry (50.8 percent from 8-16 feet). He shot 31 percent from 8-16 feet last year, compared to 49.5 percent this year. Now, of course, we shouldn't discount the fact that Wall has improved on those jumpers significantly, either. He's shooting shots closer to the basket, and that in turn, is raising his percentage. Per NBA.com, 37.2 percent of Wall's mid-range jumpers have been in the 8-16 foot range, compared to 26.9 percent last year. He's now made himself a legit threat, and intuitively, shooting better improves your efficiency. One of the biggest problems with Wall's mid range shooting last year is that it constituted such a big part of his game despite the fact that he wasn't actually very good at it. This season, Wall has upped his improvement from that area tremendously, as he is shooting 40.4 percent, which is just above this season's league average of 39.9 percent.

He shot 36.6 percent, below the league average of 39.5 percent, from there on a whopping 6.4 attempts a game, one of the highest rates in the league. What gives? Is taking less threes and operating more around the mid range area actually helping Wall's game? Well, there are a couple of factors to consider here.Įven despite his improvement, there is no doubt that John Wall was a below average mid range shooter last season. Yet, Wall so far is having a career year in terms of field goal percentage, eFG percentage and true shooting percentage. Here are the shot distribution charts:Ĥ5.1 percent of Wall's attempts this year have been from mid range, as opposed to 39 percent last year, and only 14.1 percent of his attempts have been from 3-point range, as opposed to 22.2 percent in the previous season. However, strangely enough, a higher percentage of Wall's attempts have come from mid range this year than they did last year, and he's taking less significantly less threes. Wall has been working on that shot for years, but there were some questions on whether he went too far to the extreme in terms of making that shot a staple of his game to the point where it hurt his efficiency. One of the aspects of John Wall's game that we and others criticized the most was his tendency to shoot a lot of mid range of jumpers. One of those tweaks is his shot distribution. Whether it's his improved jump shot, his passing ability, his defense or his emergence as a prober of defenses, Wall has become a household name and a legitimate MVP candidate in the nation's capital, building on his season last year where he emerged as the Wizards leader.Įven with his noted improvement last season, he has been even better on offense this season, thanks to a few tweaks in his game. As the season has gone on, it is becoming increasingly clear that John Wall has emerged as one of the top point guards in the league.

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