BY: CULLEN TONGE
Only a few short years ago, he was a triple-double God. As one of the best all-around athletes that we have ever seen, Russell Westbrook had it all. The speed, the endurance, the strength, the skills; it was all there.
John Wall was a former number one overall pick in 2010 out of Kentucky. His ball-handling is phenomenal, his court vision is almost unmatched, and his athleticism is through the roof. Then again, all of that only comes when he is on the court actually playing and not watching on the bench with an injury.
The two are two of the best point guards of my generation, and now they have just been traded for each other. In the deal, the Houston Rockets acquire the injury-riddled John Wall and a future first-round pick in an upcoming draft. The Washington Wizards, on the other hand, acquire Westbrook and only Westbrook.
Now that the deal is done, the question becomes how this deal will work out for both of these teams? Last season, both teams were invited to the NBA Bubble in Orlando, Florida, to compete for a playoff spot. The Rockets ended up with the fourth seed in the West while the Wizards finished ninth in the East.
For the Rockets, it will be interesting to see what happens with James Harden. Westbrook and Harden were a deadly duo, perhaps one of the top five duos in the entire league. And yet they still couldn’t get to the Western Conference Finals. I feel that Westbrook is still a little better than John Wall, so if they couldn’t do it with Russ, how will they do it with Wall?
Harden wants out of there, and it seems that Westbrook got his wish before Harden did. If Harden leaves, it becomes John Wall’s team. With what he has around him, I don’t think that team is any good, especially because Wall can’t stay healthy. However, if Harden stays, this team is still a playoff-caliber team. Will they get the four seed? Most likely not. But the sixth or seventh seed seems very attainable.
Going across the country to our nation’s capital in Washington D.C., I think the Wizards make the playoffs. Even though the West is definitely the more dominant conference, the East has been getting stronger. That being said, I think the Wizards can get anywhere from the sixth to the eighth seed.
Westbrook will bring the energy, tenacity, and presence that Wall wasn’t able to bring because he was always out with some injury. But how is Westbrook’s presence going to affect Bradley Beal? Westbrook is a guy who wants all the glory, and Beal isn’t just going to give that up.
Beal is one of the most underrated players in the entire league, and he proved last season that he could be that guy. Yes, the Wizards didn’t make the playoffs, but Beal still averaged 30.5 points a game as the only guy on that team. The spotlight was his, and now with a star like Westbrook coming into the picture, I am not sure that he will enjoy it.
There have been talks that the Wizards may have been looking to ship Beal out on a trade, but now that they have acquired Westbrook, I don’t see that happening unless they can get another superstar or star in the making for him.
As far as who won this trade, I think the easy answer is the Wizards. Right now, Westbrook is better than Wall, and the Wizards are now in playoff contention, with the Rockets dropping a few spots. However, no one can determine that until the season happens or even until we see who that draft pick ends up being and how good of an NBA player that pick can become.
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