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Nick Wass / Associated press
This is the only way it could have ended – both spiritually and financially.
In recent weeks, Russell Westbrook has made it known he wants to leave Houston, and John Wall has not commented on rumors he was ready to leave Washington. Despite their All-Star pedigrees, the two make too much money and have too many health issues to have the kind of commercial market they would have had five years ago.
There was no one to trade them but one against the other, which is exactly what the Wizards and Rockets did on Wednesday night, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski first reported.
This is Rashard Lewis for Gilbert Arenas a decade later and hopefully with better potential. Westbrook was horrible in the Orlando bubble over the summer, having battled COVID-19 and an ATV injury, but he had played some of the best basketball of his career with the Rockets before the shutdown. league in March. Wall hasn’t played an NBA game in nearly two calendar years because of a torn Achilles. Maybe the two just needed a change of scenery.
There are plenty of angles to unwrap with this trade, perhaps the biggest of what has been a busy offseason with less than a month into the 2020-2021 season.
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Nick Wass / Associated press
It was unlikely to swap Westbrook and James Harden at the start of the season, although both superstars would have been desired from Houston. Instead, the Rockets’ new general manager Rafael Stone had to do something different.
Stone had a low-key first offseason after taking over from Rockets general manager Daryl Morey. He shipped starting forward Robert Covington to Portland for Trevor Ariza and the draft picks, then he sent Ariza to Detroit in a signing and trade for promising big man Christian Wood. He also hired Stephen Silas as head coach to replace Mike D’Antoni.
If the Westbrook and Harden trade hadn’t happened, the Rockets would mostly come back to the core from last year. In a Western conference busier than ever, that would not have been enough.
No one knows what the Rockets will take from Wall this season. He is supposed looked great in off-season training sessions since recovering from the Achilles tear, but that’s a common refrain at this point in the season. He hasn’t played against NBA competition for two years, so he’ll have a lot of rust to get rid of.
But if Wall is anything close to himself – such a big if – he’s more natural next to Harden than Westbrook, and he’ll likely raise their ceiling. At the very least, it’s worth a look as the Rockets try to reorganize around Harden as he still hopes to move.
If nothing else, they will certainly be more interesting.
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Mary Altaffer / Associated press
The Rockets can trade Harden at some point. But if the Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, or any other potential contender hoped that day would come before Opening Night, they might be out of luck.
If Houston had traded Westbrook for a bunch of lower paid players, it would have signaled a willingness to tear everything down. The Rockets probably didn’t take a home run on Wall just to turn around and trade Harden elsewhere before the two had a chance to play together.
In an ideal world, Wall is healthy and productive, fitting in well alongside Harden, and Harden reconsiders his desire to be traded. This is the best of times, and perhaps wishful thinking from the Rockets front office.
But unless they’re blown away by an offer for Harden, which doesn’t appear to have happened yet, they’re in no rush to move the NBA’s top scorer just because he wants to play elsewhere. Other teams will either have to wait for Houston or significantly increase their bids.
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Nick Wass / Associated press
They both denied it on the record, but it’s not hard to tell that Wall and Bradley Beal don’t like playing together. They both want to be the first scoring option, and while Wall deserved this throughout his time in Washington, his extended time on the sidelines has led to Beal’s rise in the league pecking order.
Returning from a two-year absence, Wall was going to have a chip on his shoulder to prove he can still play at the All-Star level. This would inevitably lead to increased tension between him and Beal.
Similar issues may arise between Beal and Westbrook, but at least Westbrook is safer than Wall. And with Beal and a re-signed Davis Bertans by his side, he’ll be surrounded by shooters just like he was in Houston.
The Wizards haven’t made the playoffs since 2017-18. After turning Wall over for Westbrook, they should at least be in the mix to qualify for the Eastern Conference play-in tournament.
And if that doesn’t work, Beal may turn down his option to play after the 2021-22 season and run away in free agency that summer.
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Nick Wass / Associated press
If you’re a Wizards fan, you haven’t had much to be excited about since the Bullets’ only NBA Championship in 1978.
There was a string of first-round playoff outings in the ’80s, Michael Jordan’s bizarre two-year comeback effort from 2001 to 2003, four years of playoff appearances with Gilbert Arenas in the mid-2000s. before the injuries cut off its climax, and that’s about it.
Until Washington won the lottery in the 2010 draft and won Wall with the first overall pick, that is.
After that, wizards had an identity and a star that was theirs. And they were pretty good. They weren’t title contenders, but they made the playoffs four times in five years from 2014 to 2018 and reached the second round in three of those seasons, which they had only done once. since 1982.
Around this time, Wall had become one of the most explosive point guards in the NBA. He racked up five consecutive All-Star appearances with an All-NBA third team nod in 2016-17. He also developed a strong bond with Washington, throwing himself into various charitable efforts in the city. It’s a lock that the Wizards will one day withdraw his No.2 jersey.
A combination of injuries and the supermax contract that was supposed to keep Wall there for his entire career made the continuation of the partnership unpleasant. Westbrook may improve the Wizards on the pitch in the short term, but he’s never going to have the kind of city-wide impact Wall has had in his 10 years there.
It’s a shame that Wall’s tenure in Washington had to end like this.
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Alex Brandon / Associated press
It could have gotten lost in the wave of free agency moves last week, but the Rockets took a minimum wage flyer on former All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins. Now, they’ve reunited Cousins with Wall, his close friend and former Kentucky University teammate.
The cousins tweeted his approval of movement a few minutes after its first notification.
Like Wall, Cousins hasn’t played basketball for a long time. He signed with the Los Angeles Lakers last summer, but missed the entire 2019-20 season after suffering an ACL tear during an off-season training session. A few months earlier, he had suffered a torn quad in the same leg in the playoffs with the Golden State Warriors, and he had suffered a left Achilles tear with the New Orleans Pelicans in January 2018.
After so many serious injuries, it’s only fair to wonder if Cousins has anything in the tank. He was one of the most dominant greats in the league for almost a decade, but three serious injuries to the same leg in 18 months is a lot to ask someone his size to recover. There’s a reason a player as talented as Cousins signs minimum deals at the age of 30.
While it’s unclear how much Cousins and Wall let contribute after their terrible spate of injuries, they should at least feel good that they can do it together.
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Nick Wass / Associated press
Wall and Westbrook both got what they wanted: a fresh start.
Neither of them had the power to choose their destination as, for example, Anthony Davis was able to. Their contracts and history of injuries made the market slack for both of them. In this case, beggars cannot be selectors.
Given these constraints, they both ended up in good places. Wall teams up with Harden and attempts to run west. Westbrook gets a new backcourt partner more used to playing the ball with a dominant point guard, and he will reunite with former Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Scott Brooks.
Neither team is a candidate after the trade, but Wall and Westbrook are better suited to their new teams than they were to their old teams. It is a victory for them.
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