Earlier this week John Wall and the Houston Rockets met regarding the veteran guard’s future with the organization.
Coming out of that sit down, both sides seemed to agree that it would be best if a trade could be worked out.
Wall has been very open recently about his beef with the Washington Wizards and has made no such comments about Houston, so it’s safe to assume there is no ill will there.
However, if there’s no ill-will – then why the sudden desire for a divorce? As it turns out, the answer is quite simple.
According to Kelly Iko of The Athletic, the Rockets have a very legitimate reason for wanting to move on from Wall.
“Wall still wants to play a considerable amount of minutes; could he realistically do that in Houston?” he wrote.
“On paper, the Rockets could field a lineup featuring Wall, [Jalen] Green and [Kevin] Porter [Jr.], but that might not be conducive to development or the future. It would be essentially fitting a round peg in a square hole.
“Green excelled in Vegas during NBA Summer League and clearly needs the ball in his hands moving forward. The same can be said of Porter. With Wall on the team and expecting a commanding share of the ball, the planning gets tricky. Pondering the logistics of it all, it makes more sense for both sides to go their separate ways sooner rather than later.”
The Rockets have a fresh nucleus and a young coach; a 31-year-old point guard on the wrong side of his athletic prime doesn’t quite fit the direction the franchise is heading in.
Over the past few months Wall has been linked to one team in particular, but it remains to be seen if anything will materialize on that front. He is obviously due $91.7 million over the next two seasons, including a player option for $47.4 million in 2022-23, which is an albatross around the neck of anyone trying to get a good trade done. In addition, Wall has been limited to 113 outings over the last four seasons due to a lot of really bad health issues.
Injury-proneness coupled with a lot of cash owed will make dealing Wall a lot harder than Houston would hope. That said, clearly the front office is set on the move.
Where will he ultimately end up? Time will tell.
More must-reads: