John Wall – Houston Rockets
The Rockets are rebuilding, as mentioned before with Christian Wood, and they are looking to phase out some of the veterans on their roster. Eric Gordon, D.J. Augustin and Danuel House Jr. will all likely be moved at some point prior to the deadline, but John Wall’s situation is very complicated.
The former All-Star guard is owed a whopping $44.3M this season and then has a $47.3M player option for next season. Almost no team in the league has the capability to trade for this kind of contract right now, so what does the future hold for Wall?
Houston and John Wall agreed at the beginning of the season that he would sit out games as they looked for ways to trade him and while Wall has been cooperative and responsive with the Rockets management, he is wanting to get back out on the floor and play.
On November 27, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that John Wall has talked to the Rockets’ management about returning to the floor to play for them, but Houston has not made a decision on whether they want this or not.
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“Wall and the Rockets had agreed on him sitting out until a trade could be found, but the five-time All-Star guard talked to Houston general manager Rafael Stone on Friday about restarting discussions on a return to the active roster, sources said. The two sides are expected to continue talks on Sunday.
For Wall to play this season, a compromise probably would need to be found between respecting his stature with a supermax contract and the Rockets’ desire to have him play a complementary role to help develop their young core.”
Several teams are interested in John Wall should he be bought out of his contract, but nothing has been said if Houston is willing to go through with such a large buyout.
Seeing as he is under contract for next season as well pending his player option, Houston would be responsible for a $91.7M buyout agreement, something that would be dooming to their team’s salary charts. Maybe they could get Wall to give up some of his money so he could go sign with a playoff contender immediately, but it is unlikely that John Wall will give up so much money.
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Ultimately, the only way for John Wall to get back out on the court and play this season is if he is to be bought out of his contract.
Is this feasible?
Probably not, but if John Wall wants to play, he will forgo some of his salary in this buyout agreement with the Rockets.
Prediction: Gets Bought out of contract with Rockets
