So did Paul George of the Pacers in his rookie season. Beal has a great shot, and it will come. George has shot great numbers this year. There's a BIG change from the college three-point shot to the NBA three-point shot. He's under a lot more pressure as well. Most rookies have a rough transition in their rookie season, especially if they were a scorer in college, which Beal was. There are a lot of changes in speed of the game, and distance of the shots, and the pressure you're under. He'll get used to it, and be fine next year, and get even better as the season continues.
The NBA is littered with players who couldn't make that jump though. Look at JJ Redick. The man is arguably the best shooter/scorer to ever play college ball. It took the man 4 years to hit his stride and he still can't crack the starting lineup on a sorry ass Orlando team. Not to mention even he shot better than Beal has so far this year. I understand it takes time to get used to the distance/speed however I've watched a lot of Wizards games this year and Beal is missing wide open shots from the 3 point line, elbow and the corner. When I say wide open, I mean shots the other team just gives to him and doesn't even try to contest. These should be automatic, especially if you're gonna compare him to Ray Allen. Fun fact, Ray Allen shot a better 3 point percentage in his rookie year than Beal's FG percentage. Beal is shooting under 40% FG%, that is downright awful. I'm not saying I'm giving up on him this early in his career, he definitely has time to improve, but to compare him to Ray Allen is a huuuuuuuuuuuuge reach at this point. I hope he turns it around and proves me wrong, I really do. I had complete faith in him before the draft, he looked great. He hasn't lived up to the hype of a #3 pick though.
To be fair, I'm starting to question the Wizards development of young players. Not to say Beal is going to be something special, but the continued struggles of pretty much every single young player the Wizards draft has me a little baffled.
I'm not sure it's the development of the players but rather the quality of the players drafted. I never liked Vesely, I always thought he was a bum which I've been right about. Booker and Seraphin are practically the same player, we knew that when they were both drafted. Seraphin has actually played well this year, though quite streaky. Chris Singleton was drafted to be a defensive role player, he's fit his role pretty well. Wall has definitely lived up to the hype. His turnovers have more to do with his style of fast paced play and the biggest knock on him before he was drafted was his shot. Even Rondo is still trying to develop a shot. Mack has developed really well into a nice backup PG who was able to come in and play while Wall was out for a bit.
It really comes down to the Coach though. Whitman has no fucking clue what he's doing and doesn't put his players in a position to win and even admits it. When Wall was out, he tried keeping the same style of fast break offense going with AJ Price and Mack at the PG instead of switching to a half court offense. They don't run any plays. It's literally whoever touches the ball first on the offensive side of the court is going up with a shot. Whenever they do actually get some ball movement, the team actually plays decent.. see games against OKC and Miami.
I can see where you're coming from though. Outside of Wall, no player we've drafted in the past 4 years has made any kind of substantial impact.
I've always liked the Ray Allen comparison to Beal, but he is a poor man's Ray Allen. IMO he'll never be the scorer that Allen was in his prime and I don't think he is the athlete. He may get an all star game or two, but not much else. Unless they get quality management and quality coaching much like John Wall he really just needs to get out of Washington. As for this trade.....typical Washington. I don't know why they would trade for an overpaid player in Rudy Gay, because it isn't as if acquiring him would put them over the top or as if he is the quality of player that you would want to build your franchise around. He is like Joe Johnson.....quality #2 or #3 option, but nothing more.
Agreed, I hope one of two things happen if a trade for Rudy Gay does go down.
1) Other players are added into the deal, hopefully a post player
or
2) The deal is actually for Crawford, Okafor and Singleton
If neither of these happen I'll just continue shaking me head and buying some $2 tickets to go watch whatever team they're facing play.
