The latest all-star on the trade market is John Wall, who has reportedly working with the Houston Rockets to get traded to another team. With Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis and LeBron James in LA, the Los Angeles Lakers are obviously not going to be a target for John Wall.
However, there is a chance that Wall could be playing basketball in Los Angeles next season. The Los Angeles Clippers are a team that has been linked to John Wall in the rumor mill, making for an interesting scenario with Kawhi Leonard likely missing all of next season.
It is not hard to see why the Clippers may try to add the former all-star. They have fallen behind the Los Angeles Lakers in starpower and with Kawhi hurt, are in the bottom tier of playoff teams in the league. Even with Kawhi, it is hard to see them beating the Lakers, Nets, Bucks or any true contender for that matter.
However, the team is still better off not trading for John Wall, which is why the Lakers should want the team to make the desperation play and make the trade.
Why the Los Angeles Lakers should want the Los Angeles Clippers to trade for John Wall:
First of all, John Wall is not even that great of a point guard anymore. He has dealt with various injuries in his career and is on the wrong side of 30. Wall’s entire game was based on his explosiveness, which is not all the way there with his injuries.
On the surface level, Wall’s numbers last season were fairly decent. He averaged 20.6 points, 6.9 assists and 1.1 steals per game. However, he was extremely inefficient from the field. He shot just over 30% from beyond the arc and finished with an effective field goal percentage of 45.8%, the worst since his third year in the league.
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For those counting at home, Wall had the ninth-worst eFG% in the entire league last season (min. 1,000 minutes played). There were 251 players to play 1,000 minutes last season, putting him in the third percentile. Yikes.
Despite the steals, his defense was not that great either. Wall finished the season with a -1.6 Defensive Box Plus/Minus (zero is average). That was tied for the 23rd-worst in the league among players with 1,000 minutes played, tying him with Carmelo Anthony.
The difference between Melo and Wall is Melo is on a minimum contract, Wall is on one of the biggest contracts in the league. Wall is at a point in his career similar to Derrick Rose. He could provide some minutes off the bench as a veteran point guard but having him run the offense and be the main scoring presence simply is not a good look.
He would not be the main scoring presence in LA but the Clippers would be paying him like he was. On top of all that, the Clippers would have to part ways with some important role players (albeit overpaid) to get this done.
The team can trade recently acquired Eric Bledsoe, who is not that great, but would also have to include Luke Kennard and Serge Ibaka to make that work. When you consider the Bledsoe trade (and the Rondo trade) the Clippers would have essentially flipped Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, Luke Kennard and Serge Ibaka for John Wall.
The Rockets would happily accept as they would get off of Wall’s salary while the Clippers would be trading an important bench scorer and one of the only depth players the team has in the frontcourt.
It would hurt the depth of the roster and what Wall brings to the table would not even come close to making up for it. While the Los Angeles Lakers do not need the Clippers to be any worse, it would be quite hilarious to see them make this desperate trade.