The more things change, the more they stay the same.
According to a new report from veteran NBA scribe Marc Stein, it’s still the status quo when it comes to the situation involving John Wall and a potential trade to the Los Angeles Lakers for Russell Westbrook.
With Wall still under contract with the Rockets but no longer playing due to Houston’s emphasis on the development of younger players, hypotheticals have swirled for months regarding a Wall-Westbrook swap. With Westbrook clearly struggling to fit in with the Lakers, many around the league have speculated that Wall might be a better on-court fit.
But from Houston’s perspective, Rockets general manager Rafael Stone would like to trade Wall for value. Even if that proves to be impossible, he’d presumably prefer to engage in contract buyout negotiations with a player he already knows and has a relationship with, as opposed to starting anew with another highly salaried veteran in Westbrook.
Thus, the Lakers need to offer Stone some type of incentive for the swap. But at the February 2022 trade deadline, they were apparently unwilling to do so, and Stein reports that the same holds true today.
In a newsletter published Friday, June 10, Stein wrote:
Regarding the long-running idea that Westbrook could be swapped again for Houston’s John Wall, since both would be making near-identical $47 million salaries next season, one source briefed on the situation told me this week that Houston’s interest has always been predicated on the Lakers including draft compensation to sweeten the deal, which L.A. steadfastly refuses to do.
In short, the ball is in the court of Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka. If he continues not to budge when it comes to draft compensation, the Rockets will turn to trade possibilities with other teams and perhaps eventually to contract buyout talks, should a Wall deal not materialize.
All the reasons why the NBA is in no rush to expand + some Russ talk, trade chatter involving top-10 draft picks and other dribbles of around-the-league Intel … all one click away here via This Week In Basketball: https://t.co/6FrEgw0v0t
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 10, 2022
