John Wall — the former No. 1 overall pick and guy seen as the savior of the Washington Wizards — is targeting a January return. In part because his ego is wounded.
Wall has not set foot on the court yet this season due to a stress injury to his left patella, and without him the Wizards have gone a league worst 3-23. Their offense is non-existent without Wall running the show and pushing the pace at the point.
Wall was cleared by doctors to start “ramping up” activity a few weeks ago and he told Marc Spears of Yahoo Sports the goal is to be back next month.
Wall says he will be back when he can run and cut with the speed he used to without pain. It’s just a matter of time to get there, a process without shortcuts.
Wall’s ego is part of what is fueling him. He used to be mentioned as one of the crop of great young point guards in the league, but after a sophomore campaign that showed little improvement, then this season and the injury, he has dropped off the radar. Ricky Rubio, Kyrie Irving, Derrick Rose, even Jeremy Lin get mentioned as elite young point guards before Wall. He wants to change that.“If you look at the list of the point guards of the future, I’m not up there,” Wall said. “That gives more motivation to me when I get back to show the NBA what I really have to give to the league. They will respect me again. …
“Everybody will see. I won’t do the talking. I will let my game do the talking.”
Another motivation — money. Wall is eligible for an extension to his rookie contract this summer. For the No. 1 overall picks the two years before Wall — Blake Griffin and Derrick Rose — this was a no-brainer max extension for their teams. But Wall is a tougher call, with his pretty average play for a couple years followed by the injury — if he wants to really get paid this summer he’s going to have to show a lot the rest of this season. He is going to have to show how his game has grown.
We’ll see. Probably starting in January.
