It’s time for the Houston Rockets to play John Wall.
When it was announced that the Houston Rockets and John Wall had mutually agreed that they would work on finding a new landing spot for the former all-star and that he wouldn’t play for the team in the meantime, it didn’t exactly make sense.
Especially when the detail that there would be no buyout was added in. That means the Rockets and Wall were working to find a trade. Though, considering his contract (he’s due $90 million between this season and next season) a trade was never a likely scenario.
Of the teams that would be interested in Wall, none of them could realistically afford Wall’s contract even if they wanted to acquire him via trade.
So, essentially, the Rockets were telling Wall to sit for what could end up being two full seasons. And, quite frankly, that’s not fair to Wall or the rest of the team.
Even though the Rockets are at the beginning of a rebuild, no player likes losing. And the Rockets are doing a lot of that right now. Houston has the worst record in the league at 3-16 and there are no signs of that getting any better anytime soon.
For a player to be losing at the rate as the Rockets have been thus far and to see another all-star caliber player just sitting on the sideline, it has to bring some resentful feelings. For Wall, how can you just sit in the middle of what could be your last few productive seasons in the league?
Wall has to know that a trade is not coming and it’s looking more and more like he was going to have to sit, at the very least, this entire season before playing again. Considering that he has only played in 40 games over the past two seasons, due to injury, you can only imagine that Wall is chomping at the bit to get back on the court.
And while he probably would rather it be for a contending team, at this point Wall just wants to play basketball. Even if it is for the rebuilding Rockets.
It’s time for Houston to play Wall. If he is going to continue to be on the roster, it’s the right thing to do.