The Houston Rockets are trading Russell Westbrook to the Washington Wizards for John Wall and the 2023 secure first round pick. Adrian Wozniacki of ESPN. Westbrook requested the trade at the start of this season, and so did fellow rockets star James Hard. That came after the Rockets overtook coach Mike D’Antoni when he allowed General Manager Daryl More to resign and hand over 76 Philadelphia officers.
Harden’s trade request was based on his desire to join former teammate Kevin Durant with the Brooklyn Nets, while Westbrook wants a chance to become a true floor general and primary ball-handler again. In Washington Washington, he should get that opportunity. While he’s playing with another Star Guard in Bradley Bill, Bill’s excellent shooting and the -f-b movement should make the NBA one of the most outrageous backcourts and help bring the Wizards back into the argument for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
This has been Washington’s target since 2022, when Bill’s free agency loses. The Wizards agreed to Bill’s one-year extension last year, but historically teams can’t maintain a superstar without winning at a high level. Adding Westbrook, a third-team All-NBA pick last year, should be a step in that direction for the Wizards.
- Houston receives: John Wall, 2023 first round pick secured
- Washington Receives: Russell Westbrook
Rockets, meanwhile, are taking enormous risks on the wall. He and Westbrook have virtually identical Supermax contracts: three years and about 13 132 million left. But Wall is coming from a torn Achilles tendon, one of the worst injuries of all basketball. Considering his existing injury issues, it says nothing about how valuable he will be when he returns, how durable he will be, or how he will adapt to join a new team.
But Roast, desperate for long-term wealth by giving Westbrook two first-round picks and two swaps to not get the last off-fee ason, has now added three first-round picks to this se-fison ason. They still have to deal with Harden’s trade request and an unsettled roster, but in a very short time, they’ve managed to recapture the cupboard a little further than what seems to be an increasingly unavoidable rebuild. Wizards, meanwhile, will be able to stop rebuilding for a longer period of time by adding Westbrook. This makes them potential winners of the deal, but both teams get strong grades for this swap.
Wizards Grade: B +
The recent history of ball-handling guards from torn Achilles tendon is utterly devastating. Here is a short rundown:
- Kobe Bryant averaged 27.3 points per game on 46.3 percent shooting in the season in which he tore his Achilles. Then.66 .. in shooting he got an average of 1.9..9 points.
- Brandon Jennings averaged 16.6 points per game on 39.1 percent shooting for his career before tearing up his Achilles. In the rest of his career shooting.33..3 percent shooting he averaged 9.9 points.
- Chun Nasi Billups averaged 15 points per game on the shooting 36. per cent shooting season, in which he tore his own Achilles. He then played only 1 games, averaging .2.5 points per game on .5 36..5 percent shooting.
This number is particularly disturbing. A few players in basketball rely more on athletics. Achilles injuries rob players of explosions. Its value comes primarily in transition. Wall is a 32.4 percent 3-point shooter for his career. There is a very real chance that he will not become a player of positive value when he returns. With three years and 2 132 million left on his contract, it would be disastrous.
Westbrook has almost the same contract. Its durability and athletic decline are also positive concerns. We still look back at the limitations he introduced in the post-season. But for the team fighting to reach the postseason, we can comfortably say this: Westbrook is a positive-valued player. He is coming out of the third-team All-NBA season, in which he has assisted in his last 33 pre-bubble games with 30 percent points, 7.8 rebounds and 6.7 more than 50 percent shooting.
Much of that success came without a center. Washington’s distance may not be as strong as Houston’s, but it’s not exactly the same as Oklahoma City’s. Any team with Bill and Davis Burton will be able to provide an above-average offensive distance when prioritized in lineup decisions. The Pre-Bubble Wizards are 13th in offense despite Ish Smith and Isaiah Thomas starting on the point guard. The improvement is significant.
That upgrade was probably in the interest of influencing Be Bills. He signed a one-year contract extension in 2019, but is only two years away from free agency. The Wizards have not yet shown a willingness to trade with him, suggesting that his primary goal is to surround him with the winning team to ensure he stays in Washington for the long haul. Whether they actually did so is a matter of debate. The Eastern Conference is smaller than ever, and Westbrook’s history of joining fellow superstars … is mixed. But Washington Washington is a significantly better team today than it was yesterday. They have set a goal and they have taken a step towards achieving it.
That is not the question here. Further claims should be made as to whether the Wizards should try to retain the Bill at all. Even with Westbrook, they haven’t decided a 29-ranked defense. Without a functional defense, they are unlikely to be the top-six team in the Eastern Conference, forcing them to enter the postseason through a play-in tournament. Even if they do get in, a first-round pick against an Eastern Conference heavyweight like Milwaukee will await them.
It’s an honor to fight to reach the playoffs, but Tara rarely stays with teams that can’t bring them into a legitimate championship argument. Teams like Miami, Brooklyn and Denver are already there and ready to chase the moment the bill becomes available. Nothing is set in stone. The bill may still be pending. Washington could make another move in its sleeve. But even after trading for Westbrook, it still looks nicer than he won’t leave the bill, and if this is the case, trading the bill and re-building the business would be a sensible long-term course. The returns in such a trade would be significant. Athletic reported in 2019 that the Clippers were chasing Bill before acquiring Paul George. Ask Oklahoma City what it feels like to have Shea Gilgius-Alexander and five first-round picks.
Fortunately, the Wizards insulated themselves in the face of Boyle’s possible departure from the deal. It is very safe for Washington to surrender to Shingt: Top-14 in 2023, Top-12 in 2024, Top-10 in 2025, Top-8 in 2026 Shams Charania of Athletic. There is no scenario in which they lose the bill And The ability to replace it with the top draft will make the line down. You can question their process, but this is the best result they can hope for on the path they have chosen. They have meaningfully upgraded to value without taking any extra long-term money or exposing themselves to major long-term losses. That’s a big win.
Rockets Grade: B-
According to ESPN’s Tim Mk Tim Mahon, Houston’s goal is to stay competitive with James Harden. If that intention is genuine, then this trade is a head-scratcher. Ignoring the inherent dangers in the Wall’s trade after his Achilles injury, the Rockets tried to pair Hardon with a similarly weak-shooting point guard: the former Nuggets Speedster Tyler Law Sun. He started 12 games in Houston, and the Rockets led 4-8. It was the only season of the Harden era in which the Rockets failed to finish above the .500, and Houston was the last time to finish out of the top-six in offense. Westbrook is unique. It brought a lot of things that weren’t there before in Houston, with serious adjustments elsewhere, the Rockets were able to make up for its poor shooting. There is not much reason to believe that the same can be said for Wall.
Rumors have suggested a greater willingness to play the ball moving forward on the part of Hurden, which could limit some of the damage caused by Wall Wall’s poor shooting Houston offense, but it’s not as though he was a half-court master at the top. According to Glass Cleaning, Washington finished between 10 and 22 in half court points per game in each of his last four healthy asons. Harden is a better backcourt partner than Bill, but Wall himself will be a bad version. In addition, Harden is the best regular scorer of his pay generation season. Taking the ball out of his hand is not exactly the best.
But we also have to accept the possibility that Houston’s party line is not true, but an excellent solution. If the Rockets had planned to trade Hardon, they probably wouldn’t have screamed him off the top of the mountain. It should also be noted that many of the players discussed in the Harden rumors are weak shooters. There is no point in playing Caris Levert or Ben Simmons with Westbrook. They won’t fit with the wall either, but if it’s really the shells of his former self after tearing his Achilles, then plastering him on the bench will be much easier than it would be with a healthy Westbrook.
If indeed Harden’s business plan is ultimately, regardless of the return, Wall is more meaningful to him than Westbrook for simple reasons. The Rockets are bad and have a very short window to rebuild, and Wall will almost certainly be a worse player in the next several seasons than Wall Lust Brook.
Until his pick makes it into the top four this season, Houston has left to swap rights to his 2021 first-round pick against Oklahoma City. They treat that choice as a write-up. They are then left to take their top-four 2024 and 2026 first-round picks with Oklahoma City having swap rights on their 2025 pick (although their pick is Top-10 protected). In other words, they control their first-round picks in just two of the next six drafts: 2022 and 2023.
So, he wants to be as bad as possible in the asons tuo, to find two angles that can fix them during the 2024-22626 dark period. It’s almost impossible to get bad with Westbrook on the roster. Remember, when Oklahoma City lost to Durant, it led them to 47 wins and a playoff berth. Westbrook’s limitations pose serious problems in the playoffs. In the regular season? It’s a risk that Houston would instead avoid that guarantees a certain level of competence. Injured Wall is not with such a guarantee, and there is never a good time for a bad contract during a rebuild.
In general, the Rockets have done well to reload with small assets from this se fasen. They picked two first-round picks for Robert Cuewington, and in Christian Wood, they found a 25-year-old potential all-star on a very humble deal. They chose to pick the second first-round in the deal, surprisingly giving them three more incoming first-rounders (three) than the outgoing ones (two, though two very valuable picks).
But the Rockets would have done well to get a lighter defense on this pick. If Washington loses the Washington Bill, the latter is unlikely to be competitive in the latter. The odds of them seem thin after surrendering to a pick outside the top 14 in the first two years. If they build up quickly again later, Houston can still run by choosing the right one line below. But it must be admitted that there is a reasonable chance that the Rockets will not get out of this trade at all in the first round. Is there a lock to pick ninth or worse in any of the four drafts after the Wizards lost it to Bill? Probably not.
He takes his grades down from Washington. Wall was the only player in Westbrook-sized contract basketball who could make this trade easier. So Houston found no value in advancing the Westbrook deal. They needed to find value elsewhere to justify the superior player. They would have done so. They can’t be. They could have racted a little more. But if Houston is heading for a rebuild, their future will look a little brighter today than it did yesterday.
