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The Washington Wizards are apparently open to trading John Wall, perhaps to the Houston Rockets for Russell Westbrook. The common storyline around the rumor stems from Westbrook’s apparent desire to leave Houston.
From Washington’s side, it appears that the front office is more open to moving on from Wall for reasons other than his Achilles injury.
Yesterday, Chris Miller of NBC Sports Washington made an appearance on “The Sports Junkies” on WJFK-FM and simulcast on NBC Sports Washington. In his appearance, Miller noted that that the Wizards’ front office was not pleased with a video from last summer when Wall flashed gang signs at a party in New York City.
Though Wall apologized, Miller mentioned that the video still “rubbed a lot of people within the organization the wrong way,” including General Manager Tommy Sheppard and Monumental Sports & Entertainment principal owner Ted Leonsis.
That video, combined with Wall’s Achilles injury, Bradley Beal’s rise, the front office openly stating that the Wizards are building around Beal going forward AND the Westbrook rumors created the conditions where both teams discussed how a blockbuster deal could work in recent days. Miller described it as a “perfect storm.”
It will be interesting to see how training camp will be like in December if Wall isn’t traded by then, which will likely be the case for now.