JOHN WALL RUPTURED ACHILLES

Oof… John Wall suffered a ruptured Achilles after slipping and falling in his home and underwent surgery to repair it today. He will return to basketball activities in 12 months. This is extremely unfortunate considering that Wall underwent season ending surgery a month ago to minimize the risk of an Achilles tear.

First and foremost, it is just heartbreaking as a fan to see a guy that has played so hard for your city have such an awful injury stretch like this. In the past, whenever Wall would make a huge play in the playoffs, he would always grab his shirt around where it says Washington and say to the crowd, “this is my city”. It was electric. He has heart, he has passion, he loves D.C., and he, unfortunately, is having a tough stretch with lower leg injuries. Last year he missed half of the season, he will miss the remainder of this season, and he will miss most of, if not all of, next season. The number one most important thing is that he has a safe, healthy, and speedy recovery for himself. Everything else is secondary in importance to that. Now that that is understood, let’s talk about what this means for the team and what they should do moving forward.

Sell?

Here is Wall’s contract for the next few years:

Achilles tears do not have the best track record of recovery, so let’s hope Wall comes back the way Demarcus Cousins seems to have because a lot of our salary cap will be allocated to him. In my past blog, I stated that the Wizards front office should and would “turn off their lights, unplug their phones, and leave the office for the day[s]” leading up to the trade deadline. This injury CHANGES my opinion. Time to plug those phones back in. I wanted the Wizards to push for the playoffs, so that they could have some momentum going in to next year with Wall coming back. However, Wall is not coming back to start next year, so it is not like squeaking into the 8th seed and losing to the Bucks would be much to build off of. Also, I am not nearly as confident in this team making the playoffs as I was a few days ago because they have lost to the Cavs and the Hawks in the past week, which will just not get it done. On top of this, Wall is now completely immovable probably until his contract is up, so he and his contract are will be here through thick and thin, better or for worse, and till death do us part.

First off, I do not believe in tanking, so the Wizards should not try to lose and should not trade Bradley Beal. I do, however, think Otto Porter should be shopped at this time now. I have praised his versatility and efficiency over and over again, he is on a max contract, and multiple teams are interested in him. I really do not want to say goodbye to Otto Porter. Unfortunately, the Wizards do not look poised to make the playoffs, and Wall will be out for 12 months while eating up $37.8 million in cap space. Players have inflated values at the trade deadline, so this may be the perfect time for the Wizards to get a good return for Porter in the wake of next year being a poor to average year depending on the draft and free agency. The Wizards should tend to phone calls about Porter, and if they do not like the offers, they can ride the wave and finish out the season. However, I think the Wizards could ask for a couple expiring contracts and a first-round pick for him. This would clear cap space for the Wizards to work with, and it would add an extra first-round pick. I would not take anything less than this, and there is a chance they could do slightly better. The Wizards do not have to do a lot of work here; just pick up the phone and listen. The Blazers and Jazz have reportedly been showing increased interest lately even though they have been interested throughout the whole season, so there should be opportunities there. The possibility of financial flexibility and 2 first-round picks this upcoming draft should definitely get the Wizards answering the phones in the next couple days; I hope it does…