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Houston Rockets guard, and former NBA All-Star, John Wall will receive a buyout and become an unrestricted free agent this summer. The news comes courtesy of Chris Haynes from Yahoo Sports, who tweeted Wall’s decision today.
Five-time NBA All-Star John Wall will secure a buyout with the Houston Rockets and become an unrestricted free agent, league sources tell @YahooSports
Wall played the first nine seasons of his career with the Washington Wizards after being selected as the first overall pick of the 2010 NBA Draft. He averaged 19.0 points per game with the Wizards, topping out at 23.1 points in 2016-17, when he was named to the All-NBA Third Team. He earned five straight All-Star appearances between 2014 and 2019.
Wall sat out the 2019-20 season with an Achilles injury. Washington traded him and a first-round pick to the Rockets in December of 2020 for point guard Russell Westbrook.
Wall returned to action in 2021-22. He scored 20.6 points with 6.9 assists on 40.4% shooting from the floor and 31.7% from the three-point arc in 40 starts for the Rockets.
Haynes is also reporting that Wall will agree to take $7 million off of his $47.4 million player-option in the coming season in exchange for the buyout.
Because of the agreement, Wall is free to sign with any other team besides Houston. He will only count as a minimum salary against his new team’s cap.
Soon after Haynes broke the news, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweeted that Wall is expected to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers.
John Wall is planning to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers once he clears waivers, sources tell ESPN.
Other teams are calling to pursue Wall in free agency, but his intention is to join the Clippers, sources tell ESPN.
By rule, other teams could claim Wall via waivers before he hits free agency officially, but this is extremely unlikely, as the waiver-claiming team would then be responsible for his entire salary, lifting the obligation from the Rockets. That team would also need enough cap space to absorb the contract, which is all but impossible.
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