The Rockets may soon have a route for buying out pricey point guard John Wall, Marc Stein writes in his newest Substack report.
Wall picked up his $47.4MM player option for the 2022/23 season last week and the expectation is that the Rockets will once again peruse the trade market in search of a new home for the veteran.
Assuming Houston can’t find a taker for the final year of Wall’s lucrative maximum contract, Stein indicates that there are “serious murmurs” the team and the 6’3″ guard could reach a buyout agreement. How much of his contract Wall is willing to give up in buyout talks could be a sticking point, but according to Stein, a pathway to a buyout appears to be “at last materializing.”
Stein notes that the 31-year-old Wall, a former five-time All-Star with the Wizards, has played in just 72 regular season contests since the 2017/2018 NBA season.
The rebuilding Rockets opted to not play a nominally-healthy Wall as a reserve behind its young starting backcourt of Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Jr., for a single minute during the 2021/22 season, as the two sides agreed to have him remain away from the team.
As Stein writes, the Clippers and Heat have been floated as possible Wall destinations for a while and presumably would still have interest if he reaches the open market. In a new wrinkle, Stein also reports that another star-studded club, the Lakers, would consider adding Wall if he’s bought out.
A lot of ppl gonna appreciate him again once he joins a contender
John Wall $40 million buyout
New teams pay him $6 million plus luxury tax?
Lakers
Clippers
Heat
Lol no. You gotta think wall would have to be willing to lose money so he can play and rebuild his value for next offseason.
Rockets aren’t fools in this fact either, they know he’s at stake too of having to do a vet min contract if he doesn’t show up.
Got some great odds at 11:1 a month ago on Clippers and Wall uniting
. Kind of wished I had thrown more down today – See those odds gearing to 4:1 or less here in a week
Can only hope a buyout happens?
You have to figure the Rockets are asking Wall to find a team that will give him that mid-level thing around five or six million dollars. Whatever that’s called. But a lot more than the minimum.
Rockets will not cut him loose and save a minimum salary off that 47. They’ll try to save 5 or 6 off that 47. Just my thoughts.
Nets do a three team trade involving the Wizards, Nets, and Miami Heat
Nets Sign and trade Irving to the Heat
Nets Get Bradley Beal
Wizards sign and trade Beal to the Nets
Wizards get Tyler Hero, Kyle Lowlry, and a first round pick from the Nets
Heat get Kyrie Irving
Who says no?
Then Nets sign John Wall to play PG after buyout and move Ben Simmons to PG/PF/C Hybrid
Pat Riley and Id love to be there when he does so
How much do you have to drink to come up with this crap. Beal said he is signing a Max deal with the Wizards. At least for this season he is not going anywhere except to the bank.
#freefall
Too bad no one would be interested in a sign and trade. Obviously a fit for the Lakers if he’s willing to take the minimum.
I can’t see him being interested in LAL unless they’re going to release RW. Assuming both players take the same buyout, it would be a wash for financial purposes.
LAC could use a PG with his facilitation skills, but you only get to play 5 guys at a time, and with Ty Lue, you never know what 5 it will be or why. After what he had to deal with last year, is that what he wants?
So, I guess MIA by default, but, like with LAL, he’d be looking at a time share with another veteran.
Maybe none of the above.
THIS is why you NEVER sign a big star to a huge contract!
The play in tournament awaits
DS1-I hope you are joking. Basketball unlike the other major team sports rely on the big stars to win and win big(i.e. titles). Using your logic the Warriors should have never signed Curry to his huge contract, or the Bucks should not have Giannis to his deal, or LA/Miami/Cleveland should have never signed Lebron, etc.
Right; it’s more being selective about who you are willing to distribute a max contract to
It’s not even about that because the Rockets didn’t sign Wall. It’s all about the Rockets compounding mistakes time after time after time. They trade Chris Paul and picks for Westbrook. Next year, OKC trades Paul for a lot more. Mistake #1 Then trade Westbrook for Wall and a pick. Next year, Washington then trades Westbrook for a lot more. Mistake #2 Keep Wall at home instead of having him build value for another team. Mistake #3
With their history, I expect the Rockets to trade Wall and probably a pick or two for a longer term slightly cheaper, significantly worse player.
The second he picked up the option I said “He will be on the Heat by the end of July.. quote me”…. He lives in Miami, he trains in Miami, he’s openly said he wanted to play for the Heat in the past…. imagine if both he and Victor Oladipo are on the Heat’s bench next season… wow
Oladipo was on the bench this season and it was meh rather than wow.
hey played 8 games in the regular season.. scored 40 in one of them…. then single handedly won games in the playoffs with his defense…. what were you watching?
In 15 PO games he shot 37% in FG and 27% in 3s… And except for the last 2 games, his RS percentages were pretty similar. What were YOU watching?
He was injured. Again.
Poor Rockets – they already paid for Wall last season not to play. I think it’s hard to beat getting $47.4 million for not playing. Why would he take a lot less now?
Poor rockets could have played him instead of paying him to stay home too. There’s no poor anyone here.
That’s not how a buyout works.
Presumably, Wall would gain an idea of his financial worth on the open market. Then, the Rockets would buy him out for the remaining amount of money on the 47.4 million dollar option after subtracting that theoretical sum. Thus, Wall is “giving up” money on the buyout, with the understanding another team will reimburse him on the open market
And he might obviously also take a haircut himself. Lets say someone wants to take him on for 6 million a year. He might maybe accept 30 million for a buyout if he really wants to play.
I would prefer a trade Wall-Westbrick though for Houston.
They would get some assets from the Lakers (cash + 2nd rounders?)
Westbrick would probably accept a much bigger paycut than Wall. Dont know how much Westbrick could get as a contract compared to Wall though.
That’s not how a buy out works either. The player loses money in the deal 99% of the time . Ie Kemba Walker . In return they can pick where they go.
I understand it might not be exact; I was more addressing the “lot less” part of OP’s comment
If the pistons aren’t able to get any of the restricted free agents to sign in Detroit they could trade for Wall with their huge cap space and they could get their 1st rounder back from Houston is exchange.
Then they could buy him out if they wanted.
My bad. That pick was traded to OKC and then to the Knicks. So they can’t get it back from Houston.
If John was smart he’d forfeit some money and agree to the buy out and then go to the clippers.
Over his career he has earned 230mil and next season he’s due another 47mil but as the articles states he would’ve played 72 games since 2017/18. That’s less than a seasons worth of games in basically half a decade.
At what point do you say sweet that enough I want to play the game I love again.
Id say to the rockets I want 40mil, I’ll forfeit 8mil and in negotiations I’d go as low as 35mil which gives saves the rockets 10mil.
Then from there sign with the clippers.
Great coach, two superstars, great city, make the playoffs, resurrect your legacy and you could find yourself getting another decent contract to end your career.
Perfect fit for the clippers, Wall PG Kawhi Covington Morris, solid defensively, decent spacing and good impact off the bench. Reggie Kennard Powell Batum Zubac
That would be great, but his “agent” is Rich Paul who really works for LeBron. Wall on the Clippers would not be good for LeBron so he’ll likely sign with the Heat.
Heat would be a terrible fit. Lack of spacers, and they have point guards/ball handlers on that team.
Lakers would be a terrible fit same thing lack of floor spacers and to many ball handlers.
Heat have floor spacers, but he only makes sense if they lose Oladipo or Lowry
There’s no real negotiation of buyout number at this stage. The FA period is here. His agents will find out (if they haven’t already) what he will be offered in the market among the teams he’s willing to go to, and that’s the discount he’ll agree to. Obviously the team will confirm it, but haggling over it (by either party) might cost both parties, as these offers are conditioned upon being available.
Can’t imagine they get out of that contract for less than $30 million. At that point I’d have to guess finding any sort of trade be it now or the deadline would be preferable for the Rockets. Rock and a hard place for Houston FO.
Im not going to be mad if he agrees to come back to dc with the buy out and just get pd with the mid level $. He owes dmv.
Still think its ridiculous they didnt let him play last year. He would have been a great compliment to Green and Porter for his defense and playmaking, which they still could use. That being said, I guess they licked out with Jabari Smith, so it worked out for them
If the Heat trade Lowry, or lose Oladipo, he would be great. Dallas could be a good spot for him. New Orleans, Portland, Atlanta, Brooklyn, and Phoenix all make some sense as well, and Washington makes sense too, even though they drafted Johnny Davis
They asked him to play off the bench. They wanted him to be the mentor 6 man. Clearly he thought he was too good to come off the bench. And for a developing team hoping KPJ and Green can be the next elite backcourt(which I don’t see, green will be a top player but KPJ is solid but not a top guard) starting wall would have hampered their development. It wAs the right call on Houston’s part. The bad call was trading for him in the first place.
He WAS too good to play off the bench. Wall is better than KPJ and Green COMBINED. At least for right now. Maybe in the future that won’t be true, but the Rockets made a mockery of the sport by having him sit at home while healthy. It’s a big reason why I stopped really paying much attention to the NBA.
Yes he “WAS” better. But how can you justify a rebuilding team handing over all ball control and playing time to a 31 year old ball dominant guard, who would 100% take the ball away from one of the best draft prospects since Yao and possibly hamper their development.
It’s all about rebuild, not give a former AS the rock and keep him happy. Team first, and wall wasn’t onboard. Right or not in their eyes the whole idea was to take a punt on a young guard and hope he gets good enough to support a possible future superstar.
Rockets couldn’t trade him, he wouldn’t be a vet to the kids. The result? A nice year off for one of the best PG’s of the modern era. I would never knock Wall as a player but as I’ve said before. Giving him the reigns helps no one in a rebuild
I agree it’s not right for the league but it was right for the team. Only reason he didn’t play last year was because no one wanted his contract and he didn’t want to give up too much money.
Except it is not all about the rebuild. If all they want to do is player development, then they should either stop charging full price for tickets or apply to join the G League and they can bring up another franchise for a couple of years until Houston decides they want to try to compete at the highest level again.
I know it is not just Houston. OKC is in exactly the same position. So is Detroit. But they are there by their own choosing. All those teams had the ability to sign free agents and win more games, but they chose not to.
Yes, the choices made some sense based on the fact that losing gets rewarded with better picks in sports. But that needs to be changed also.
And to top it off. If Jalen Green cannot learn anything from watching John Wall and practicing against him and talking to him, then he probably ain’t gonna be that great anyway.
His skillset helps both of them. He should have played next to them
Wouldn’t surprise me if he found his way back to the Wizards
#FreeOptimusDime
Honestly if the Lonzo situation continues Bulls might discuss taking him on after a buyout. They would have to sign him first, then re sign Lavine, maybe dump White’s salary first actually. Then find a defensive big for the MLE, maybe a 3&D using the trade exception.
John Wall is the ultimate finesse player lol.
Over the past couple of seasons, he has literally made millions for not playing.
I always thought he was an overrated player.
Not a huge nba fan so I’m curious how a buyout impacts the teams cap space?
Whatever amount of salary the player agrees to give up would get removed from the team’s cap for that season.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that a $5MM buyout results in $5MM of “cap space” though, since the team could already be over the cap by, for instance, $20MM.
Thanks Luke