Washington Wizards star John Wall has made it clear he wants to be traded, according to The Athletic‘s Shams Charania.
In 2017, Wall signed a four-year contract extension worth $170 million following the best season of his career. Then, after 41 games in 2018, his season ended when he required surgery on his left heel. The next season he managed 32 games before rupturing his Achilles tendon.
He hasn’t played in an NBA game since.
Despite that, Wall is set to be the fourth-highest paid player in the league this coming season at just over $41 million. The Wizards had been hopeful that they would get a chance to sport a healthy and committed Wall back on the floor with star teammate Bradley Beal in an effort to reignite a fire in their back court (something that they certainly also hoped would help pitch Beal on wanting to remain with the franchise long-term), but evidently Wall has other designs.
Unfortunately for the Wizards, moving such a contract (especially when it’s attached to a player coming off of such a significant injury) isn’t easy, and while not impossible, the true test comes in trying to acquire more value than what is being sent out.
That’s one reason why, perhaps, this past Tuesday, it was reported that the Houston Rockets had discussed a deal with the Wizards that included swapping their own disgruntled star point guard, Russell Westbrook (also on a sizeable contract of his own at over $41 million), for Wall.
And while that discussion is supposedly at an impasse for the moment, the rumours will continue to fly so long as the two players remain unhappy, intrinsically linked by their positions on the floor as well as their gargantuan contracts.
As for Wall individually, he has three seasons remaining on his present deal (the last of which has a player option), and the Wizards do not have to rush into anything rash. If they can’t find anything that makes sense for them in the present market, they may just enter the new campaign with Wall despite his grumbling, and go from there.
