NY Knicks: Why trading for John Wall wouldn’t be a disaster
Ok, breathe…relax…calm down… it’ll all make sense soon, and the best part is that I have no say in what the New York Knicks end up doing. If the front office thinks the idea of trading for John Wall is just as nuts as you do, it won’t happen. But if you’re here because you think that it could be a good idea with some reasoning, here it goes.
New York’s been burned so many times in the past by trading for injury-prone, past-their-prime players like Wall, so I get why anyone would hesitate on this kind of trade. But there’s little to no risk involved whatsoever.
After a tremendous 2020-21 season where we saw the Knicks blow everyone’s expectations of them out of the water and make the playoffs for the first time in eight years, the team improved on paper in the offseason but failed to even make it into the play-in tournament this year.
But all is not lost, as we watched ‘the kids’ take over in the final month of the season and the future looks promising. RJ Barrett has seemingly taken the jump to the next level and looks primed to be able to lead a serious playoff team.
The front office needs to do whatever they can over the next couple of seasons to build around him. They made the mistake of building around Julius Randle last summer and he looks like he’s got one foot out the door already.
Should the New York Knicks be interested in a trade for John Wall?
The Knicks are in a very special position where they can consolidate some of their older assets in a trade for a player like Wall, and they’d likely get better overnight by doing so.
Think about it… Randle doesn’t seem to be happy anymore. After signing a monster extension last offseason, it’d be hard to get off of his contract in most situations. But a trade for Wall would help the Rockets out by getting a $47 million salary off of their books for a player who doesn’t suit up anymore.
In turn, you give a rebuilding Houston team a few veterans for the young bucks to learn from as they get acclimated to the league while sending Randle back to his home state.
Addition by subtraction would be the goal here. In the best-case scenario, New York would get Wall, who’s a former All-Star at the point in an attempt to have the Chris Paul effect on the young core, just like he did when he was with Oklahoma City.
He’s an inside-out scorer, just like Thibodeau likes. The upside far outweighs the downside if he stays healthy for an entire season.
On the other hand, let’s say that he does get hurt as he’s done several times throughout his career… all that would happen is that New York would open up yet another rotational spot for a player like Miles McBride, or perhaps a rookie point guard to get more burn.
The trade above may seem a little lopsided at first, but it should be more about what the Knicks have after the dust has settled. In one move, New York would open up a starting spot for Obi Toppin, who finished the season with a career-high 42 point game against Toronto.
It’d also open up a rotational spot off the bench for Cam Reddish and Jericho Sims, two young players that deserve to have bigger roles next season.
Lastly, the Knicks would get a great point guard as a stopgap which would buy the team another season to figure out their long-term solution at that spot. If all else fails, the best part about acquiring Wall now is that he’s on an expiring contract that goes away at the end of the season.
Freeing up that much space by then is going to be a necessity because the young players are going to have to get paid soon. Most notably, Barrett and Reddish. It’d solve a multitude of problems that faced the team this year in just one trade.
All that I’m saying is that if every other plan fails and New York’s left with a bunch of players that it probably doesn’t want on the team anymore, this would be a phenomenal last resort effort. What are your thoughts?
