Houston Rockets could be interested in acquiring Los Angeles Lakers’ star guard Russell Westbrook if the deal was “incentivized” according to longtime NBA insider Marc Stein. The Rockets are willing to offer John Wall to match Westbrook’s contract, but they want to receive sufficient draft compensation in return.
The Rockets traded Westbrook to the Wizards for Wall and a lottery-protected first-round draft pick in Dec. 2020. A few weeks later, they traded James Harden, officially entering a rebuilding state. Washington dealt Westbrook to the Lakers last July.
The Lakers gave up a first round pick plus three rotation players in Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Montrezl Harrell in order to acquire Westbrook from the Washington Wizards.
Wall agreed with the Rockets to not play this season as the team worked on finding him a new home, per Shams Charania of The Athletic.
“John Wall, Houston Rockets meet and mutually agree to work together on finding a new home for the five-time All-Star guard. Plan is for Wall to be present at training camp, but not play in Rockets games this season.”
Stein deems a possible Wall-Westbrook as highly unlikely to happen between now and Feb.10. In case the Lakers are willing to send Westbrook to Houston alongside the 2027 first-round pick and a couple of second-rounders, then, the Rockets could be interested in swapping the contract of Wall for Westbrook.
Westbrook has one more season on the five-year, $206M contract he signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2018. Wall also has an option for one more season in his deal, worth 47M.
