Wizards’ John Wall Won’t Be Traded This Year Due to Unique Rule?

Getty Washington Wizards guard John Wall

While the Washington Wizards may be gearing up for an overhaul of their roster, one of the biggest names mentioned is All-Star guard John Wall. Wall is likely to have multiple teams interested in acquiring him, even with the huge contract, but it seems that a deal may not happen this season. And it’s not due to the Wizards not being willing to deal Wall, but instead, involves a CBA rule which leaves the team in a tough spot.

Recently, NBA analyst Tom Haberstroh joined Zach Lowe on The Lowe Post podcast to talk about a variety of things. One of the first topics was the trade rumors surrounding the Wizards and specifically Wall. Haberstroh brought an interesting topic to light which almost certainly pushes a potential deal to send him out of town until after this season.

Haberstroh: “The trade kicker for John Wall right now is at $21 million that the Wizards would have to eat if they traded John Wall today. And next year, what you wrote is 100 percent accurate, which is – this is kind of a weird CBA quirk that the trade kicker would be 15 percent this year of his remaining contract, which is a huge number. It’s $20 million that they would have to pay just to get rid of him. But that number basically goes down to zero next year because of the weird CBA quirk that you can’t have a trade kicker go above the max. Because he’s at the max next year, basically his trade kicker effectively goes down to zero.”

Lowe: “So the basic simple reality of that is in real terms John Wall is untradeable from the Wizards perspective because they have to pay that money until July 1, and on July 1 he becomes tradeable.”

It’s a pretty eye-opening spot for both the team and Wall. The Wizards would almost be paying their longtime guard to leave town, which is certainly less than ideal. Haberstroh essentially stated that any deals and proposals that are being tossed out should just be pushed to next year.

Haberstroh: “So all these trade proposals with John Wall’s name in it, I think you just kick the can down the road until next year.”

Potential Suitors for Wall

It’s tough to gauge exactly where Wall could land, but there are certainly going to be teams interested. One major hold up will be his contract, as the All-Star has a huge cap hit over the next few seasons. This starts at $37.8 million next year and goes up progressively over a four-year span to $46.872 million in the final season of his deal, per Spotrac.

Talks of Wall being a fit with the Phoenix Suns have already come to light, but it’s been a lot of speculation and rumors to this point. It’s still early on, and if the Wizards aren’t being overly-engaging in efforts to trade him due to that kicker, then it’s unlikely there’ll be much traction until the offseason.

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