Teams can’t even handle the threat of John Wall’s pick-and-rolls

There aren’t many players who score out of the pick-and-roll as well as John Wall. On the season, Wall generates 44.8 percent of his points as the ball-handler in the NBA’s most used set and ranks in the 67.7 percentile with 0.88 points per possession, according to NBA.com. The list of players currently scoring more points per game out of the pick-and-roll is only four-deep: Kemba Walker, James Harden, Damian Lillard and DeMar DeRozan.

However, that only tells half the story when it comes to Wall’s dominance in the pick-and-roll, because he records a large amount of his 10.1 assists per game — ranking him third in the NBA behind Harden and Russell Westbrook — in those situations. In fact, sometimes the threat alone of him running a pick-and-roll is enough to create an opening for one of his teammates.

Just look at how the Boston Celtics choose to defend this pick-and-roll between Wall and Marcin Gortat.

Avery Bradley ices it to force Wall into Jordan Mickey’s help around the elbow. It allows the Celtics to guard the sequence with only two defenders, in theory, but there is an ever-so-slight pocket for Wall to slip a pass to Gortat on the roll. As a result, Terry Rozier has to leave his assignment, Marcus Thornton, on the perimeter to tag the roller at the free throw line.

Wall is basically left with two options:

1. Pass to Gortat. It’ll suck the defense in and Gortat can then make a pass out to one of the three 3-point shooters on the perimeter. If they don’t crash down on him, he’ll be in position for a floater or layup.
2. Pass to Thornton. The Celtics expect Wall to pass it to Gortat because he scores 24.0 percent of his points as the roll man and Wall has assisted him on 77 baskets this season. Therefore, he can fake the Celtics out by looking at Gortat as if he’s going to pass to him before launching a no-looker at Thornton standing on the opposite wing.

Based on that information, you can probably guess how it plays out.

It’s the timing Wall does it with that makes it impressive. He knows he can make a pass to Gortat but keeps a close eye on the third defender involved. When they take one step too close — or when their momentum is carrying them away from where they need to be to make it extra hard to recover — he makes the pass.

Read More: Six creative ways NBA teams are adapting the pick-and-roll

Let’s check out another example. This time the Washington Wizards try to exploit the same mismatch every team hunts for when playing the Oklahoma City Thunder — putting Enes Kanter in a pick-and-roll. Everyone can clearly see what Wall is trying to do because the Wizards space the floor around him with a shooter in each corner and a big man on the baseline. He then motions to Otto Porter Jr., who is being guarded by Kanter, to come set a screen.

What’s important is how Jerami Grant reacts to his play call. Knowing Kanter doesn’t have a chance of staying in front of Wall, he leaves Bradley Beal on the wing and stations himself at the elbow so Westbrook can funnel Wall towards him. The only problem is doing so opens up a passing lane to Beal in the corner for an open 3-pointer. Before Porter has an opportunity to make contact with Westbrook on the screen, Wall launches a bullet to Beal and he knocks down the semi-contested shot with relative ease.

Once again, pay attention to the timing of Wall’s pass and how he fools the defense into making them think he’s going to run a pick-and-roll without really doing anything.

The shooter can make the defense’s life even more difficult by positioning themselves behind the person guarding them when they commit to helping on the pick-and-roll. For example, notice how Beal keeps moving away from Wall in the video below. By putting himself in Elfrid Payton’s blindspot, Payton has to turn himself around entirely before he can think about closing out. While Payton recovers quickly, it’s not enough to deter a knockdown shooter like Beal.

Also notice how accurate Wall’s pass is. He knows exactly where to put the ball to make Payton’s job of contesting Beal’s shot attempt as difficult as possible while leading Beal with the pass to avoid disrupting his rhythm. It’s those little things that make Wall the elite passer he is.

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It’s worth noting Wall doesn’t make these sorts of passes every game, but it goes to show how much of a nightmare he is to contain in the pick-and-roll. If teams hang their big man back, he’ll knock down 40 percent of his pull-up jumpers. Give him the smallest of windows to drive and he’ll get to the basket in a blur for an athletic finish. He also knows where his teammates are at all times, so crashing down on him when he gets into the paint rarely ends well for the defense.

Need proof? Look at how easily Wall finds Gortat for an uncontested layup on this possession.

Now watch him get into the paint and draw three defenders before somehow making a pass out to Porter for a jumper. He’s from the LeBron James school of passing with his ability to jump up in the air and make pinpoint passes.

Other than knocking down a high volume of 3-pointers, there isn’t anything Wall can’t do out of the pick-and-roll. When you account for how frequently he runs them and the different options available to him on almost every possession, you can’t blame teams for trying their best to be a step ahead of him, impossible as it may be.

All statistics are up to date as of January 9, 2017.