25-under-25: Bradley Beal at No. 8
The Step Back is rolling out its 25-under-25 list over the next two days. Follow along with our rankings of the top 25 players under the age of 25.
Instead of showcasing his abilities, Bradley Beal started the first four years of his career fighting off injuries. A fracture in his right fibula was the main culprit and it was questionable if Beal would ever live up to the Wizards’ hopes when they selected him third overall due to a reoccurring leg injury.
Despite the injury concerns, the Wizards awarded Beal with a five-year, $128 million contract in restricted free agency prior to last season. Many — including franchise point guard, John Wall — questioned why Washington was willing to give such a strong commitment to a player who had missed nearly a full season worth of games in the duration of his first contract.
Last season, Beal responded loudly to the critics. In easily his best season yet, Beal averaged a team-high 23.1 points per game, shot 40.4 percent on 3-pointers while attempting 7.2 per game, played a career-high 34.9 minutes per game for a career-high 77 games.
Beal’s explosion has him now in the discussion as one of the top shooting guards in the NBA. He’ll need to pick up the slack defensively before he has an argument to top that list, but Beal is just now approaching his prime playing years.
With new head coach Scott Brooks at the helm, Beal showed he is more than just an off-ball shooter. Due to a lack of options, Beal often ran the show whenever Wall was resting on the bench. An improved handle and a willingness to attack the rim more, Beal became a real threat out of the pick-and-roll. While he still isn’t drawing enough fouls to be an elite scorer, his 4.4 free throws attempted per game was the highest number he’s hit in five seasons.
In his first few seasons in the NBA, Beal would often settle for long 2-pointers and midrange jumpers instead of 3-pointers and attacking the rim. There was a noticeable difference in his game in 2016-17 — the pull-up jumpers and off the dribble fadeaways were replaced with drives to rim or step back 3s.
The small tweak in his shot selection resulted in Beal being one of the most efficient scorers in the NBA a season ago. His points per 100 possession number jumped from 27.3 to 32.7 along with an offensive rating of 117 and a true shooting percentage of 60.4 percent. This efficiency spike came while Beal was also experiencing his highest usage rate in his career (26.5).
However, for all the improvement Beal displayed on the floor, it didn’t get him an All-Star nod. The shooting slump he went through in the playoffs also kept the Wizards from taking the next step as a team. (For a player with the most textbook shooting form this side of Klay Thompson, he sure does miss ugly at times).
That can’t be the case this season. The two Eastern Conference finalists have undergone big makeovers this offseason, so if there is any time for Washington to strike, it’s now. The iron is more than hot. The team kept most of its core together from last year’s squad that finished four games back of the No. 1 seed in the East.
Brooks has a proven record of getting youthful teams into contention. Wall has cemented himself as one of the 15 best players in the NBA today. Beal must join him in that conversation and it starts with what he shows on the floor next season.
Beal works with noted NBA trainer Drew Hanlen. You can see clips of the workouts and attention to detail he gets in every session on YouTube. He is willing to put the work in during the offseason and so far the results have been on display each year.
The jump he needs to take this season is much more than skill work, though. There is a certain confidence, a swagger, that the best players in the world carry themselves with. If he is to be contemporaries with Jimmy Butler and Klay Thompson, he’ll need to believe he belongs there in the first place.
He’s talked the talk, and now he must show he can consistently walk the walk. Otherwise there are guards ready and willing to take claim to the upper echelon if Beal doesn’t. On this list alone, Devin Booker (9), Andrew Wiggins (11) and D’Angelo Russell (12) all loom large behind him and they could all usurp him for this spot by next season with the proper development. Beal has been working his way towards this moment for awhile and needs to capitalize on it.
Next: 25-under-25 -- The best young players in the NBA
Beal has long looked the part of an elite shooting guard. He is getting superstar money and he is primed to take on a superstar’s role. The time for potential is long behind us and it’s time for another p-word to define Beal’s career: production.