'Breakup' between Rockets, five-time All-Star John Wall 'gaining momentum'
John Wall made five consecutive All-Star games from 2013 to 2018. Since then, he has not appeared in more than 40 contests in a season and has missed two of the last three campaigns entirely.
Since being traded by the Washington Wizards to the Houston Rockets in December 2020 in a blockbuster that brought Russell Westbrook to the nation's capital, times have been particularly rough for the 2010 first overall pick. Now, it appears that Wall and Houston's relationship is finally on its final legs.
It was reported last week that the 31-year-old point guard was going to exercise his $47.4 million player option. After being limited to 40 games during the 2020-2021 season, Wall sat out the 2021-2022 campaign due to a disagreement with the team over his role.
"Wall is healthy, and his preference has always been a trade to a place he can compete and play key minutes, but due to his gargantuan contract -- Wall recently picked up his $47 million player option for the coming season -- finding a deal has been difficult. For example, Houston is anticipating nearly $80 million in cap space next summer. For that reason, it would be unwise to trade Wall for players making big money with more than one year left on their deal, thereby eating into that cap space. The Rockets want maximum flexibility to be aggressive in the summer of 2023," Kelly Iko of The Athletic wrote.
According to Iko, there were "some trade talks" involving "a few teams" on the night of the NBA Draft last week, but none came to fruition.
More must-reads: