Wizards' Beal: 'I'll be top-five, top-10 in my position to ever play'
Bradley Beal may lack the eye-popping statistics, but the 21-year-old Washington Wizards shooting guard certainly doesn't lack the confidence.
Coming off one of the finer performances of his young career - a 28-point outburst in a Game 2 road victory over the Toronto Raptors - Beal sounds nowhere near satisfied.
"I just want to continue to be better and better and better," Beal told ESPN's Israel Gutierrez. "And hopefully, by the end of the year be one of the best 2-guards in the league."
Considering the depth of stars at the 2-guard position falls off after James Harden, Jimmy Butler and Klay Thompson, it's not out of the realm of possibility for Beal to soon be considered a top-five player at his respective position.
Even that wouldn't be enough for the third overall pick in 2012.
"Hopefully, I'll be top-five, top-10 in my position to ever play," Beal said.
Quick refresher - Michael Jordan, Jerry West, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Clyde Drexler, George Gervin, Reggie Miller and Ray Allen are just a sample of some of the greatest shooting guards in NBA history. With all due respect to Beal, a fine player in his own right, he has an incredibly long way to go before he can even consider that conversation, to say the least.
Wrist and ankle injuries limited Beal to 63 games during a somewhat disappointing regular season, as the sweet shooting youngster failed to make an expected third-year leap.
Through three years, Beal is averaging 15.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.2 steals in over 33 minutes per game, while shooting threes at an impressive 40 percent clip.
One of the factors holding back Beal's solid yet unspectacular individual numbers might be sharing a backcourt with All-Star point guard John Wall, as Beal's usage will likely never spike with Wall around.
Beal talked about his initial struggles teaming with Wall in his discussion with Gutierrez.
"I don't remember when exactly it was, but we had to sit down and get on the same page," Beal said of his relationship with Wall.
"I felt like sometimes we would just overlook each other. I think we both wanted our individual goals to exceed what we needed to do together. Because we both wanted to be All-Stars, we both wanted to average this amount of points, we both wanted this amount of assists and everything like that."
Beal mentioned a mature conversation the two young guards shared. "We said we both need to get on the same page, and play with the mindset that we're the best backcourt and we're not battling against each other."
Who Beal is apparently battling is a host of legendary 2-guards.