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John Wall isn't having the rookie season he wants, and when you look at his numbers, it's better than he probably thinks, but you can't question his toughness. It's driving him crazy that not only has he missed 12 games and started 21 of the 26 games he's played.

From a positive view, Wall leads all rookies in assists per game (8.9 apg) and is ranked second among all rookies in points per game (15.3 ppg).

Monday, it's a big time matchup when Utah's Deron Williams and Washington's John Wall, the No. 1 pick in the 2010 draft go at it.

But, recently at home, where Washington is playing pretty good, Wall has not hit his numbers, averaging 9.8 assists in his last five games at the Verizon Center. He's also shot 31.7 percent and averaged 4.2 turnovers.

Wall has been battling a number of injuries. He isn't talking about all of his problems, but it's obvious he's hurting.

"It's just kind of tough for me because of the injuries," Wall told 4NBA.me. "That's the only thing really I think that's stopped me from being who I want to be and controlling myself."

The former UK superstar has a problem with his foot, knee, and jammed thumb that is effecting his jump shot.

"Right now, it's kind of tough when I hit the floor and I got all this padding on my left hand, so it's kind of tough to grip the ball when I'm coming up to shoot it. But I'm working on it everyday. It's just being confident and holding my follow through."

To those that are watching him on a regular basis, they don't think Wall is as fast as he normally plays.

Because of his ability to take the ball to the bucket, and also the fact that his shooting has been poor, hitting 39% from the field and 30% from downtown, NBA coaches are daring Wall to shoot.

"He's got to take 15-foot shots when they're there," says Washington Coach Flip Saunders. "He can knock down that shot. He's a 80 percent free-throw shooter, and he works a lot on taking that shot. But I think what happens is that he's been somewhat surprised about how far back teams are playing off him, so he comes off really tentatively instead of coming off aggressive. If it's there, you go ahead and shoot it."

With time, John Wall should become a much better shooter.

"I don't want to blame it all on having an injury in my knee that's still sore, and my hands," says Wall. "I never want to complain about nothing. If I'm out there playing, I'm playing."