John Wall can apparently imagine a return to an ex-Team Washington Wizards. This is reported by David Aldridge The Athletic.
The Wizards are looking for reinforcements at the point guard position following the departures of Spencer Dinwiddie and Aaron Holiday ahead of the trade deadline. Current playmakers, Raul Neto and Ish Smith, are decent backups but are not at starter level.
However, trading in the offseason will be difficult due to Wall’s heavy contract. The former All-Star will earn $47.3 million in the coming year before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2023. Matching your salary in a trade becomes almost impossible from a Wizards perspective without giving up important players.
Another possibility is that Wall does not exercise his player option for the upcoming season, which would make him a free agent and allow him to join any team at the veteran minimum. However, it seems unlikely that he would forego such a high salary.
Wall hasn’t played a second with the Houston Rockets this season as the team look to their youngsters. Due to serious injuries, the point guard has only played 40 games over the past three seasons.
Wall played for the Wizards for a total of nine years and was the face of the franchise for a long time. It also became an All-Star five times during this period. In late 2020, the Wizards finally traded Wall to the Rockets, in exchange for Russell Westbrook coming to the capital.
