Could Celtics Add John Wall? Why Union Does, Doesn’t Make Sense

The Boston Celtics are no strangers to adding former NBA stars that are winding down their playing careers.

Shaquille O’Neal played his final season in Boston, while Gary Payton, Dominique Wilkins and Tayshaun Prince all held on long enough to suit up for the Celtics as they began to near the end. In many of those cases, the C’s were on the unfortunate end of finding out that the player no longer had it, but other examples have seen those players come in and contribute — no matter how small their role was.

Blake Griffin was a great veteran signing in 2022-23, while Sam Cassell and Bill Walton each came in to contribute to championship runs in their short runs with the Celtics. That got us thinking about a player who could fall into that category entering the 2023-24 season.

What if John Wall signed with the Celtics?

This is a bit of a loaded question, but it doesn’t come out of nowhere. Wall put on a showcase for NBA teams in Las Vegas on Sunday, with the Celtics reportedly attending. It is entirely possible that Boston looks to add Wall on short money to round out their guard rotation and serve as a veteran presence in the locker room.

Would that work, or would it go horribly wrong? Let’s examine the likelihood of both outcomes.

Why it would work.
In any world that Wall joins the Celtics, it would be on a very low-risk deal. If a veteran has to put together a showcase for teams, it’s likely that any deal to come from it would be the veteran minimum. Wall made about $275 million in his first 15 seasons, so we’re sure he wouldn’t mind.

The former No. 1 overall pick isn’t the player he once was, but still provided a scoring spark when on the floor for the Los Angeles Clippers last season — scoring 11.4 points and dishing out 5.2 assists per game across 34 contests. He can still handle the ball, and as a fifth option at guard if you count Jaylen Brown, he would only be used sparingly — depending on Joe Mazzulla’s game plan.

Why it wouldn’t work.
This list is a bit longer than the last.

Let’s start with the fact that Wall can’t be trusted to stay healthy, having played a total of 74 games over the past four seasons — dealing with injuries to his achilles, knee, hamstring and abdomen. He’s also about to be 33, meaning that trademarked athleticism isn’t going to come back. His only hope of becoming a player who can play significant minutes is to reinvent his game.

That will be kind of difficult, as Wall was never a great shooter to begin with and knocked down just 30.3% of his attempts from long-range last season. He’s no longer a great defender, either. In short, this isn’t the same guy who made five All-Star appearances for the Washington Wizards.

That brings us to our final point, which has to do with Payton Pritchard. The Celtics have a young guard who has done everything they’ve asked of him throughout his career, finally asking for a trade after completely falling out of the rotation in 2023. If they go and sign Wall, Pritchard might finally force the Celtics’ hand.

There’s no doubt it would be cool to see Wall get a shot at winning a ring with the Celtics, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense on Boston’s side.