Washington Wizards May Have Had Deal in Place to Send John Wall to Miami Heat

Seen by many as a cautionary tale against the supermax deals, John Wall’s contract is a big one. But the Washington Wizards may have been trying to give it to someone else.

There’s a lot changing in Washington this summer. The team has still yet to name a replacement for former GM and president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld. And more then half of last year’s roster will be hitting free agency come July 1.

But the changes could have started coming long before Grunfeld’s dismissal in early March. Yesterday, Brian Scalabrine, a former member of the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls, and joined The Sports Junkies on 106.7 The Fan and shared some news about what could have been with Washington’s “point god.”

In addition to advocating against trading Bradley Beal this summer, Scalabrine had this to say about John Wall and his status in DC…

"The John Wall things is a disaster for them. I heard they were like a month away from trading him to Miami but…then his achilles popped"

According to Scalabrine, Wall was set to be shipped out to Miami to join Pat Riley, Eric Spoelstra, and the Miami Heat’s championship culture. That was until his season-ending injury.

You can hear Scalabrine’s entire interview with the Junkies here. He joins them at 27:45 and starts talking Wizards at 39:15.

The deal would have definitely freed up some funds for the Wizards as they get ready for a summer full of roster rebuilding.

It’s unclear which players or picks would have been involved in the trade in addition to Wall. Scalabrine didn’t offer any additional insight and there have been no additional reports in the meantime.

Hassan Whiteside‘s a contract is one that the Heat would surely like to unload, but it’d be strange if the Wizards were to do a deal that brought Whiteside to Washington with Dwight Howard, Ian Mahinmi, and Thomas Bryant already under contract.

Although it was due to injury, the Heat did move Justice Winslow to point guard while Goran Dragic was out this season. To their credit, Winslow had some real success at the point. It might have been the best the young, former Duke standout has looked at the NBA level and could suggest the Heat were ready to move on from Dragic even earlier.

Both Whiteside and Dragic have player options for the 2019-20 season.

At this point, we’ll probably never hear the exact details of whatever the trade may have been. If there was one in place at all.

Both the Washington Wizards and Miami Heat missed the playoffs this season, yet Miami came much closer, finishing the season 39-43 while Washington went 32-50.