John Wall Vows He's Going To Return Better Than Ever Before And I Can't Wait To See It

I don't know about you, but it feels like forever since we've seen John Wall play in an NBA game. In reality, so far it's been 491 days since he dropped 21/7/8 on 9-19 shooting in a loss to the Pistons. What initially put him on the shelf was that heel issue in December 2018, and then last February he slipped and fell at home and ruptured his achilles. That's some shit luck if I've ever seen it. Since it's been so long since we've seen him destroy people on the court, I wouldn't judge you if you forgot what a talent this dude is. Basically a lock for the All Star Game every year since 2014, he had just made an All NBA team in 2017, had a run of three straight years averaging at least 10 assists, is one of the fastest dudes in the league and when he's on I'd argue he's one of the most unguardable point guards the league has. If you're more a visual learner, this is what that looks like

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So if he's saying we haven't even seen the best John Wall yet, well that has me pretty excited. Remember the Wizards for a large stretch of the season had a top 5 offense. Bradley Beal took a leap, the Latvian Laser is a legit shooting threat, Thomas Bryant is developing, their issue was they couldn't stop a nose bleed. A healthy John Wall should help with that as well as giving them an even more dynamic offensive player for defenses to worry about. 

The question will obviously be how will he respond after this achilles injury. That's not exactly something that players who rely on speed and athleticism come back from and look like their old self. He is only 29 and hasn't played in forever so his legs should be fresh, so I'm interested to see how he looks. Will his elite first step be the same? There's no reason to think if he is in fact better than he ever has been before that the Wizards could find themselves competing for that 4-5 seed. They just have to figure out how to win on the road (8-24 this year) and that's certainly easier with Wall back.

It's a big year next season in the East in terms of All NBA caliber players returning from brutal achilles injuries, so who do you think looks better between KD and Wall? Either way this has me pumped for next year and I'm not even a Wizards fan, I just enjoy watching John Wall play basketball and would prefer that be back in my life.