John Wall promises improvements

John Wall showed some serious flashes of brilliance over the course of his rookie campaign. Even though he was hampered by injuries for most of the year, Wall established himself as having one of the quickest first steps in the league, some of the best top-end speed in the league, and brilliant passing ability. However, he did show some glaring weaknesses, notably his turnover ratio and abysmal jump shot. According to the Washington Post’s Michael Lee, Wall plans on improving both of those weaknesses in the off-season:

Wall is optimistic that the Wizards will find the right pieces this offseason, but he has big plans for his team and himself. “Next year, I just want to be in the playoffs,” Wall said. “Everything I didn’t do good this year, you’re going to see me get better at next season, making jump shots, being more confident, less turnovers. But studying a lot, being a better defender, all those things. That’s the same thing Derrick said, ‘I want to be MVP.’ It might not happen next year, but at least by my third year, I want to be in the race.”

If Wall can fix his jump shot, he’ll quickly become one of the most unstoppable players in the league, but he has a lot of work to do. Wall seemed confident going to his pull-up jump shot all season long, but that confidence was mostly unfounded. Wall had an eFG% of only 34.2% on jump shots last season, which is absolutely horrible -- Rajon Rondo shot 38.2% on jump shots.

Wall isn’t the first talented rookie who came into the league with a broken jump shot. LeBron shot 35.6% on jumpers his rookie season, and Dwyane Wade shot only 37.1%. Chris Paul only shot 42% on jumpers his rookie year, and he’s now one of the best jump shooters in the league. Heck, Kevin Durant only shot 39.7% on jumpers his rookie season. (These are all eFG% numbers, by the way, and courtesy of 82games.com.)

We know that Wall has a very bad jump shot. We also know that great players have come into the league with bad jump shots before, and have often improved them. Whether Wall makes those improvements or not will be the question for his development as a potential All-NBA player going forward.