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Bradley Beal's breakout NBA Playoffs performance has a lot to do with how the Wizards used him all season.
We wondered all season why the Wizards used Bradley Beal like they did. A pure shooter with a beautiful stroke and an advanced off-ball game was suddenly being used in a hundred pick and rolls while having to quarterback a second unit devoid of other offensive threats. He was encouraged to pull up for long twos, even though these aren't especially efficient shots as is and he wasn't exactly nailing them at a proficient rate. Hell, I wondered it too at one point myself.
But there was always one silver lining to the Wizards' approach. Sure, Beal would struggle to read pick and roll coverages now, but he wasn't going to struggle forever. For Beal to approach stardom, he needed experience learning how to create shots for himself and others. Rather than avoid this and try to turn Beal into a specialist, the Wizards felt his confidence would hold up by being challenged, even if failure resulted early on. Thus, the Bradley Beal Sampling Period was born.
NBA Playoffs 2014: Bradley Beal's sampling period is really paying off
You have to give credit where credit is due. For all the complaining we did about how Beal was being used early on, the Wizards absolutely took the right approach. Beal's body language and confidence has been an issue from day 1 in the league, but the Wizards kept putting him in difficult situations to help him cope with some of those frustrations. We're seeing Beal develop right in front of our eyes. THis is fantastic.