The Houston Rockets have opted not to play John Wall this season as they attempt to find a trade for him, and that approach might have ultimately backfired on them.
Wall has not played at all this season, and with the trade deadline now behind us and the guard still in Houston, it’s more likely than not he remains stuck and inactive on a rebuilding Rockets team.
There was a way out, though. The Los Angeles Lakers reportedly had kicked around the idea of trading Russell Westbrook, who has been dreadful this season, to the Rockets for Wall. They reportedly had the option to send a 2027 first-round pick the Rockets’ way, or do a pick swap in order to push the trade through.
Neither came to pass and, as The Athletic’s Sam Amick explained Monday on the Rich Eisen Show, it was over trepidation about Wall’s lack of playing time.
“With John Wall in particular, another factor that I was told was that because he hasn’t played all year, the Lakers were uneasy about investing anything,” Amick told Eisen. “They at least know what Russell Westbrook is, so there wasn’t a ton of confidence that John Wall was going to come in and be a game-changer, so they said no to that.”
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Westbrook has been bad enough this season that it’s fair to say they are better off taking a flier on Wall than continuing to trot Westbrook out. However, injuries and his current situation in Houston have limited Wall to just 113 regular season games since the start of the 2017-18 season (when he was a member of the Wizards), so he isn’t exactly a sure thing right now.
Whatever the case, the Lakers’ roster is hugely flawed, and adding Wall might not have done much to change that.
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