The Playbook: Wizards look to unleash John Wall's speed by going small

Washington Wizards point guard John Wall is blessed with prescient passing vision and superhuman speed.

It only makes sense for the team to play to his strengths.

That, however, wasn't the case last season. Despite Wall's league-leading assist total, Washington finished 19th in offensive rating - wedged between two decidedly lackluster teams in the Brooklyn Nets and Denver Nuggets. And despite Wall's explosiveness in transition, Washington posted a pedestrian ranking of 16th in pace.

This season, the Wizards are looking to change up their attack to make better use of Wall's speed. As Wall explained in training camp, the offense will be "totally different."

"It was totally different because we did a lot more running because our offense has changed," Wall told Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post. "We're getting more up-tempo."

True to form, the Wizards did look different - unrecognizable, even - during preseason. Washington ranked fourth in pace, first in percentage of points scored in transition, and not coincidentally, their offensive rating shot up to a league-best 106.8 points scored per 100 possessions.

Two factors have fed into the Wizards' turnaround.

First, the Wizards are looking for any excuse to run - on their opponent's misses, on their makes, with or without a numbers' advantage. As soon as they secure the rebound, the Wizards are finding Wall on the outlet and sparking the break.

Here's an example of the Wizards' breakneck pace: The Philadelphia 76ers have the Wizards outnumbered 4-2 in transition, but Wall is able to use his unrivaled quickness to blow by his man and get to the basket. That draws extra defenders, and it leaves Otto Porter open in the corner.

Hunting out more fast break opportunities is a smart move for the Wizards, who ranked third in points per transition play last season. And with an all-out speed demon in Wall running the break, it just makes perfect sense.

To that end, tabbing the 22-year-old Porter to take 37-year-old Paul Pierce's place in the starting lineup was an astute move by head coach Randy Wittman. Pierce's shotmaking will be missed, but Porter offers so much more in the open court, where his average of 1.38 points per transition play ranked fourth-highest in the NBA last season.

The Wizards are also hoping to leverage Wall's speed in the halfcourt by opening up the floor with more shooters. During training camp, Wittman laid out boxes on the court to illustrate how he wants the floor to be spaced, while shooting guard Bradley Beal has talked at length about trading long twos for threes.

The bigger effect on spacing will be the demotion of longtime starter Nene to the free up a shooter for the four-spot. Kris Humphries drew the majority of starts in preseason, but Porter, Jared Dudley, and Drew Gooden will also see time as a smallball four.

The goal is simple - it gives Wall more space to operate. Adding another shooter makes it harder to send help against Wall's daring drives to the hoop.

So far, teams have opted to sag off against Humphries to close off the paint against Wall - a smart move given Humphries' career mark of 7.7 percent from 3-point range. However, after working on his shot for much of the summer, Humphries nudged his accuracy to 35.7 percent on four attempts per game in preseason, and the Wizards have posted a robust offensive rating of 109.0 with him on the court.

The Wizards' offense also flourished when Gooden (109.1) or Porter (110.7) played as the stretch-four, a trend that dates back to last season.

Either way, whether it's pushing the pace in transition, or being more mindful of spacing, the result is clear: Reshaping the team to unlock Wall's superhuman speed is a brilliant move for the Wizards.

"He’s old-school, but ... he understands now that this is a players’ league," Wall said of Wittman in a separate piece by Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post. "You adjust to how your best players are, and that’s what he’s doing."