The NBA playoffs are underway, and for teams that are out early, they have already started offseason operations to plan for the team's next season. The Houston Rockets have a 20-62 record this season, ranking fifteenth in the West, which is not unusual for the rockets in the post-Harden era, which is in the process of rebuilding.
Speaking of the Rockets, the Rockets have been in a slump since James Harden left, rapidly degenerating from a playoff team to a fish-belly team. Still, they had no intention of getting John Wall on the pitch. The 31-year-old guard has been hidden by the Rockets for an entire season this season.
In fact, Wall's non-appearance is the product of his farce with the Rockets, the 31-year-old Wall wants to get a starting guard position in the Rockets, but the Rockets in order to cultivate new people, the rebuild did not agree to Wall's request. This made Wall unacceptable, and eventually the two sides negotiated, and the Rockets continued to pay Wall's salary, but Wall did not play for the Rockets this season!
In the middle of this season, the Rockets had considered trading Wall, but for the outside world, the fourth annual salary of the Wall League was a huge premium contract, which also made many teams prohibitive. However, the Rockets' 2021-22 season has ended, and this year's offseason, this situation may be well improved, after all, after this season, Wall's contract is only one year left, if Wall can change his attitude, maybe there will be a team to extend an olive branch to him.
Wall's most recent appearance in the NBA is back to the 2020-21 season, when Wall played 40 games and averaged 20.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.1 steals in 32.2 minutes per game, shooting 40.4% from the field and 31.7% from three-point range. Although he is 31 years old, his field vision and passing ability are still outstanding, and his performance has been recognized by the team's coaching staff and team owners. Although he could not play, at the beginning of the season, Wall still appeared in the team's training sessions and on the bench, patiently guiding Porter Jr. and Green.
Houston is unlikely to buy out Wall this season, after all, Wall still has $91 million left on his last two-year contract, but the Rockets have spent a lot of time on Wall, looking for a suitable next home for him, but they have not received good feedback. The idea of buying out Wall's $47.3 million contract next season is still jaw-dropping, but it's clearly more viable than it was last year.
But either way, Wall has to accept that he is no longer the facade of a team, Wall is about to turn 32, and since the injuries caused by Achilles tendons and bone spurs in 2018, Wall has only played 72 games in the past few years, which is not an optimistic situation for him, and if he continues to be absent like this next season, his trade value will decline even more severely.