Could he make sense for LA?
The Los Angeles Lakers currently have one spot open on their roster. They smartly elected to leave that spot open past the trade deadline, as they await a potential return on the buyout market.
The market has already worked pretty fast, seeing names like Danny Green, Justin Holiday and Terrence Ross find new homes. However, there is still plenty of talent out there, and over at Bleacher Report, the Lakers were linked to a former All-Star guard in John Wall.
“The clock is running out on John Wall’s NBA career. Wall was a massive net negative over the course of his 34-game Clippers tenure, and he’s played in a grand total of 147 games in the last six seasons. He’s a bad shooter, doesn’t explode to the rim with ease anymore and no longer bends defenses with his passes.
“It’s a shame that injuries robbed Wall of a significant portion of his prime, but his market will be limited once he hits the open market.
“The Heat could show some interest if they fail to land Westbrook after they were linked to him over the summer. The Lakers also expressed some interest last July but seem unlikely to prioritize a point guard in the buyout market after acquiring D’Angelo Russell.”
The Lakers have been linked to Wall ever since they traded for Russell Westbrook. Now that they finally got the aging Westbrook off their team, would they really want to add another aging veteran past his prime in Wall? The answer is probably not, however, the Lakers have shown interest in Wall over the last few seasons, and this would be a way of getting him for very cheap.
This season with the Clippers, Wall averaged 11.4 points and 5.2 assists per game, shooting 40.8 percent from the field and 30.3 percent from deep. They’re not exactly great numbers, but he did show some spurts throughout the season.
Wall wouldn’t help the Lakers more than some other candidates on the market, however, so I see the deal as highly unlikely. But it’s always a possibility.
