Bradley Beal - Sharpshooter (Superb Separation & Stepbacks) 16/17

Bradley Beal is a bad bad man. Before this year, he’s had some health issues, but he’s one of those players that comes to play when the lights are at their brightest. His first foray into the NBA Playoffs was in 2014, against the dominant defense of Tom Thibodeau’s Chicago Bulls. His numbers that year went from 17.1 points per game to 19.2 points per game in the playoffs. The next year, the same thing happened again: 15.3 ppg on the year, 23.4 ppg during the playoffs. This past season, Bradley Beal played a career best 77 games, with also a career best 34.9 minutes per game. His healthiest year yielded a career high in numbers: he averaged 23.1 points per game, 19th best in the ENTIRE LEAGUE, on 48.2% from the field. He both attempted and made more free throws than ever before too (3.7 makes on 4.4 attempts per game, good for 82.5% from the line). Again, that number shot up in the playoffs to 24.8 points per game (3.8 free throws on 4.7 attempts). His aggressiveness and incredible offensive abilities resulted in the Wizards coming ONE win away from the conference finals, somewhere they haven’t been since 1979, the year after they won the Bullets’ first and only title. Washington boasts (arguably) the best backcourt in the East, are coming off of 49 wins (their winningest season since 1979) and just missed the conference finals. The future is bright for Bradley Beal, John Wall, and their Wizards.

Bradley Beal is more known for his shooting, and while that’s entirely fair given how impressive an offensive repertoire he boasts, his finishing ability is often overlooked. With Beal, you have Ray Allen/Rip Hamilton-esque off-ball movement. The defender is constantly having to run through screens, endure a lot of v-cuts and flares, backdoors, stop & go’s, and then after all of that, if you manage to stay with him, suddenly Brad's hitting you a jab or an inside out move, and draining a jumper (probably with his patented stepback). If you play right RIGHT up on him to take away that shot, he’s got the explosiveness to get straight to the rim, where he’s got a variety of finishes; the up and under is a particularly pretty way to show off his athleticism, but he's also got the touch with either hand, or that sweet floater of his. Beal possesses a real ability to seek out contact, and finish around, over, or through it. All that being said, it’s his ability to drive and attack the basket that actually GENERATES his jumper. When asked about his stepback by Coach Nick over on BBallBreakdown, Bradley said "the more you go downhill, the more off balance the guy is gonna be” so instead of fading, he drives, gets them leaning, then creates that separation. It isn’t a fade like most people do on their stepbacks, it’s a power move, create space, then rise up, on balance.

This seems like a silly thing to say especially given how important he was to the Wizards’ postseason run, but I thought that Bradley Beal deserved to be an all-star, certainly the replacement all-star when Kevin Love was unable to play due to injury (the spot went to Carmelo Anthony, of the 23-34 Knicks versus Beal and his 34-21 Wizards). Also, I'm not the first to notice it (that would probably be Joe House and Bill Simmons, or at least that's where I heard it first), but if you're old enough to remember what a young Ray Allen played like, there's some shades of that in Mr. Real Deal Bradley Beal, especially when it comes to being a big game player.

Here’s a pretty stellar video from before this season about some of the work Beal put in during the off-season with the great Drew Hanlen:    • Bradley Beal NBA Workout Highlights |...