LAS VEGAS — John Wall emerged from the locker area just before the LA Clippers played their first Summer League game against the Memphis Grizzlies at Cox Pavilion on the campus of UNLV. The five-time NBA All-Star point guard officially signed his Clippers contract Friday. President of basketball operations Lawrence Frank praised Wall in a statement, calling him “one of the great downhill drivers and shot creators of his era,” and added that Wall adds “depth to our backcourt with his initiating, passing and point-of-attack defense.”
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The Clippers beat the Grizzlies 94-76 in their first Summer League game, led by Brandon Boston Jr.’s combination of 3s, free throws and steals. But the highlight of the night was Wall in the presence of the Clippers for the first time.
He took his seat across from the Clippers bench closest to the scorer’s table, with new teammates Reggie Jackson, Luke Kennard and Terance Mann down the row. After the first quarter, Wall greeted Clippers chairman Steve Ballmer and Hall of Fame consultant Jerry West. And at halftime, Wall gave a piece of his mind in the bowels of Cox Pavilion.
With a nod to his new No. 11, here are the eleven takeaways from Wall’s media session:
1. Wall has had his eye on the Clippers for a while
Back in 2017, Wall tried to get 2010 draft classmate Paul George from the Indiana Pacers to the Washington Wizards. Instead, George got traded to Oklahoma City. But Wall mentioned that he has been in contact with George about the Clippers even before his buyout from the Houston Rockets, along with Kawhi Leonard.
“Me, Paul and Kawhi have been talking for a minute about it,” Wall said. “That’s somebody I call a brother, and then just watching how great they are as a team, I think they’re a first-class organization, first of all with that. Great teammates, great guys, great coaching staff, great ownership. Who wouldn’t want to live in L.A.?”
The possibility of joining other teams was never a serious consideration for Wall.
“I really didn’t care about all the other teams,” Wall said. “The other teams are great, and I’m glad teams wanted to come after me. But I kind of looked at the picture of like: Where can I go where I don’t have to be the John Wall from 2016 and have to carry the load and have the pressure on me? I think they were missing a piece of having a point guard, and it’s a great situation for me to be there.”
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2. Wall is ready to compete with Reggie Jackson to start — and they’re cool
The fact that Frank referred to Wall as depth in what is usually a sterile team statement was worth noting. Wall confirmed that even though he has not come off the bench since January 2013, he is both ready to compete with incumbent starter Jackson as well as content with possibly coming off the bench for the first time in 10 seasons. Either way, the Clippers are going to have one of the better backup point guards in the NBA.
“I know a lot of people ask me, are you mad if you start or not start? I don’t care,” Wall said. “I’m a competitor and I just want an opportunity to go out there and compete for a spot. And if I get it, I get it. And if I don’t, we know how talented Reggie Jackson is and what he’s done for this team and helping these guys out, especially when Kawhi and PG was out. Even when they were there, he’s a great piece. Whoever gets the spot is great. We all just come here with one goal and trying to win a championship.”
Now, Wall is teammates with Jackson seven summers after using Jackson as an example of his contract situation. But Wall says that he and Jackson have always had a good relationship, and the two share a close bond with George.
“We never had a problem about that,” Wall said. “We’ve always been cool. That’s way in the past. We even talked about it when it came out.”
3. Wall is healthy
Wall has dealt with serious injury to his left knee and left Achilles tendon that pockmarked the end of his tenure with the Wizards. The Rockets also shut him down for the last weeks of the 2020-21 season due to a right hamstring strain. But Wall was not injured last year, and he is healthy.
“My Achilles never bothered me,” Wall says. “Like if you watched me — like it’s funny to me — when I was in Houston, I wasn’t on a great team that year. We didn’t play well. But I was averaging 21 and seven. I think that speaks high of me. When I get between those four lines, I don’t have an injury, I don’t think about it. I go out there and compete.”
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4. Wall explains missed seasons
When it comes to describing his 2021-22 season on the Rockets’ roster, Wall says that he was just trying to be professional for a team that did not have him in their plans anymore. And Wall recovered from surgery to repair his ruptured Achilles tendon by February 2020, just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Wall did not play in either of his final seasons with the Rockets and Wizards.
“Last year wasn’t my fault or my choice, and I couldn’t control that,” Wall says. “I just tried to be professional, be a leader and be a vet and help the young guys out as much as possible. And the year before it was the bubble, so I was like, I ain’t coming back for no bubble.”
5. Wall doesn’t have to be Batman
“I don’t have to be Batman every night for us to win,” Wall said. “That’s the ultimate goal for me, is this part of my career, I don’t want to have to be the Batman every night to try to win. On our team that we have, I think anyone can be Batman.”
Wall has always been the top shot creator on his teams when it’s all said and done. That wasn’t supposed to be the case in Houston, but he did not get to play with James Harden long enough. The player Bradley Beal is now makes it hard to remember that Beal fell in line behind Wall in Washington. Now, Wall will be on the best team he’s ever been on.
“I’m happy because I don’t have to have the best player guarding me every night like I have had my whole career,” Wall said. “You tell me the third-best defender is going to have to guard me? Good luck.”
6. Wall will push the pace
The Clippers ranked 19th in pace last season, and 28th the year before that. The return of Leonard and George on the wings likely drags the Clippers back down the pace rankings. But Wall can be a pace unto himself.
“That is my job, push the pace,” Wall said with a smile. “Just imagine I got to push the pace and I have guys like a Kawhi Leonard or Paul George on this side or Nicolas Batum or Reggie Jackson or Terance Mann or Luke Kennard and have a big like Zu who can run the floor.”
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7. Role played by former Kentucky teammates
When Wall made his way into the arena Saturday night, he was followed by none other than former Clippers center and 2010 first-round pick out of Kentucky, DeMarcus Cousins. No, Cousins won’t be joining the Clippers, as the team signed center Moses Brown to a contract Saturday night.
But Cousins embraced several members of the Clippers organization before sitting next to Wall for the game. The Kentucky point guard the Clippers added last offseason, Eric Bledsoe, also came from the 2010 first round.
Wall was in touch with both Cousins and Bledsoe about the Clippers, but overall, the consultation was just part of an overall process for Wall.
“I take advice from certain people. But at the same time, I like not having a perception of things,” Wall said. “I like to find out for myself. But just sitting back, I can just tell how the organization is run. Both told me how great the organization was. But just watching it, even going to playoff games, watching how they move around, how they hang with each other, how they vibe, I think that is how you have to do it.”
8. Wall’s working on his next phase
Even though Wall believes that he still has the same tools as 2016 (a year he referenced three times), he knows that he’s in the second half of his career. He has worked out coast-to-coast to improve his game and take advantage of the year off that he has had.
“Knocking down shots. I’m going to have an opportunity to get a lot of catch and shoot shots,” Wall said of his workouts over the last year. “I probably won’t have the ball as much as I’m used to in the past which is — I’m cool with that. That’s what you extend your game for. Working on floaters. My change of pace is better, footwork is better. All the things you had time to finally get healthy, sit back, watch it and break it down. That’s what I’ve been focusing on.”
9. Veteran minicamp
Many of the Clippers are in Las Vegas for veteran minicamp, which continues Sunday. Wall has been a part of it, and he has a perspective about how teams have changed their approach to coming together and practicing.
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“Everybody comes in, we get our individual work for like 20-30 minutes and then we just do some group stuff,” Wall said about the week of work the Clippers have put in. “Guys are communicating, guys are competing. Like we’re having shooting contests. Having that type of commitment, you want to have and just seeing guys coming in and working …
“We all know what we can do if we put it all together and everybody stays healthy. We just try to lock-in and focus on what our ultimate goal is.”
10. Tyronn Lue
Wall has not played for many head coaches in the NBA. In Washington, Wall had the late Flip Saunders, Randy Wittman and Scott Brooks. In Houston, he had Stephen Silas. In Tyronn Lue, Wall is playing for a head coach who won a championship as a player and a coach for the first time.
“He’s just real,” Wall said. “It’s crazy, you watch when he was in Cleveland, it seemed like how he brought the team together and got guys to do certain things. He’s played in the league. They got to give him a lot of credit. Like almost every guy on the staff played in the league or something like that. So that’s great. But he’s always going to be honest with you. He’s not going to sugarcoat it. And that’s what you need.”
11. Observing 2022 postseason
Wall has not played in the playoffs since 2018. The expectation is that he will get to return in 2023 and possibly reach his first career conference finals. But in the meantime, Wall enjoyed watching the 2022 playoffs — and applying that to what he sees in this Clippers team.
“It was exciting for me,” Wall said. “I think, you got to have different options, different lineups. You got to be able to go big, if you need to. You need to go small if you can. Teams switch one through five a lot. I think we got a lot of pieces where we can go small if we have to. Or we can go big if we want to.”
(Photo: Thomas Shea / USA Today)
Law Murray is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the LA Clippers. Prior to joining The Athletic, he was an NBA editor at ESPN, a researcher at NFL Media and a contributor to DrewLeague.com and ClipperBlog. Law is from Philadelphia, Pa., and is a graduate of California University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California. Follow Law on Twitter @LawMurrayTheNU
