Rockets Trade Westbrook To Wizards For John Wall And First Round Pick

[pwaldo]

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2020/12/...ound-pick.html

The Rockets and Wizards have agreed to swap star point guards, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), who reports that John Wall is headed to Houston in exchange for Russell Westbrook.

The Rockets will also receive a first-round pick, per Woj. Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that it’ll be Washington’s protected 2023 first-rounder and will be lottery-protected. Those protections will gradually decrease each year, and if it hasn’t changed hands by 2026, it’ll become two first-rounders, says Charania.

The deal involves two players on super-max extensions, notes Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link). Westbrook will make $41.4MM and $44.2MM over the next two seasons with a player option in 2022/23 for $47.1MM. Wall is due $41.3MM and $44.3MM in the next two years, followed by a $47.4MM player option. His contract also includes a 15% trade bonus that will be voided because his salary is more than the league maximum for the upcoming season, Marks adds (Twitter link).

[molly1984]

Will miss John Wall in DC in terms of his work in the community and all his years here, seems like a good guy but also welcome Westbrook to the Wizards and may be a good change for the team.

A little surprising because it seemed like all this drama was just rumors after the GM had said i think a week or so ago that they were not going to trade Wall..

[WilyWestbrook0]

Oh wow, it will be funny seeing Russ in a Wiz uni. I could kind of deal with him in a Rockets uni because he was with Harden like back in the OKC days. But I never expected to see him in a Wiz uni, lol.

[kallipolis]

This trade doesn't make a ton of sense to me for the Rockets. I get that money wise, it's basically a wash which helps, but the Rockets move one ball-dominant guy out for another ball-dominant guy when you already have Harden, and Wall hasn't been able to stay healthy either. I initially thought this meant the Rockets were also going to deal Harden but Woj says they're looking forward to Harden/Wall playing together. If trading Westbrook, I would have at least tried to get some size up front or dealt for a skilled forward rather than another guard. I don't see this working out too well for Houston.