Former Nets player and current league analyst Brian Scalabrine is urging his former franchise to acquire Houston Rockets guard John Wall.
“If I’m Brooklyn, I’m seriously thinking about John Wall over Kyrie Irving,” Scalabrine said during a recent segment on SiriusXM NBA Radio. “John Wall has (more) positional size. You can play him multiple positions. When motivated, he can guard. At least I would have some size out there. He might be a better fit, to me, than Kyrie Irving.”
While Wall and Irving are both point guards, Wall offers much more defensive versatility and more of a pass-first approach to the position.
If the Nets do have interest in Wall, the storyline to monitor from a Houston perspective is whether it would be solely in the event of a contract buyout, or if the Nets like him enough to consider trades.
Would the Nets be better with John Wall instead of Kyrie Irving next year?
Hear what @Scalabrine thinks ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/P5lmP7jzp3
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) May 31, 2022
Some will undoubtedly ask the obvious question: If Wall might be bought out, why would the Nets consider surrendering any value to the Rockets to acquire a player they might could obtain as a free agent?
For starters, a buyout is no guarantee. Led by general manager Rafael Stone, the Rockets have held firm on their desire to trade Wall for nearly a calendar year, rather than buy him out. Second, if Wall was to be bought out, he would then become an unrestricted free agent. There would be no guarantee in Wall picking the Nets over other potential suitors, which reportedly could include the Heat and Clippers.
The tricky part is in any hypothetical Wall trade is matching salaries, since Wall will make over $47 million in the 2022-23 season. Yet, with Brooklyn and Irving, it’s not as hard as it would be for most teams. Should Irving opt in to the final year of his existing contract ($36.9 million) to facilitate a trade, or choose to enter free agency and sign a new contract, his salary would be nearly enough by itself to make a Wall trade feasible.
At 30 years old, Irving and the rebuilding Rockets (or most other teams with salary cap room this offseason) likely aren’t a match. But it’s not impossible to see a three-team trade scenario where Irving finds a fit with another contender, and the Kevin Durant-led Nets view Wall — as a drop-in replacement at Irving’s same position — as a better fit for their win-now emphasis. In such a scenario, the salary matching assets from the team acquiring Irving could be redirected to Houston.
It’s admittedly a longshot, and Scalabrine’s comments were speculative rather than sourced. Yet, if the Nets want Wall, it is doable.
