If Cleveland is out here playing Love in spite of their youth movement, then there’s really not an excuse as to why Houston won’t play Wall. Shut him down in the middle or later on in the season and not from the jump.
The John Wall situation
- Thread starter Jermio
- Start date
seymour cake
All Star
Send wall to the pelicans and call it a day. I dont see which contender he'll fit in at.
The league would have to step in IMO rather than the NBPA as all Houston has to say is that we are paying him, so it's up to them whether or not they choose to put him on the court. Wall isn't giving up any money nor should he (at least right now) and no team is trading for that contract, so Houston might as well just put him out there even if it's for a few minutes a game.
If they haven't stepped in with the Simmons situation, then I don't think that they can or should step in with this one either. Technically they can't though as it would set future precedent where they would expected to step in and resolve other situations like this one.
Houston should have just played him until the after the All-Star break and then sit him similar to what OKC did with Horford. At least you could have said that you actually tried to utilize him.
He's still plenty athletic and plenty quick. His problem is shot selection and decision making. If he was hunting 15 assists rather than taking 15 midrange jump shots per game, he'd be better off.
At this point in his career, at only 31 with basically 3 seasons off at this point, he's gonna be a bench guy if he wants to win...
It was stupid as hell sitting him the entire time anyways as a trade was never going to materialize with his current contract.
Yup. I think Wall and Stone thought they'd for some reason find a trade partner quickly and that's why he agreed to just be sitting on the bench in street clothes. But two months of not playing while you're still practicing with the team, working out, and basically being the highest paid assistant coach in NBA history gets boring.
Houston definitely wanted to get a good start on the tankathon but if Wall is gonna just jack up terrible shots and turn the rock over, he can be a great tank commander himself. Rockets are concerned that if he does play well, they'll get into the play-in territory
OKC had that same worry with SGA last season which is why they kept him out as long as they did out of fear that he'd ruin the tank. Fortunately for Houston, Wall isn't that good of a player anymore that can mess up their tank. Just trot him out of there 10-20 minutes and cut his minutes if he starts doing messing up the tank.
