Wall-Westbrook Swap: Who Won?

In what could go down as one of the biggest trades of the 2020 National Basketball Association (NBA) offseason, the Houston Rockets finally pulled the trigger on Russell Westbrook, sending the 2017 Most Valuable Player (MVP) to the Washington Wizards. In return, the Wizards sent John Wall and a 2023 first-round pick. 

Question: Who won this trade?

Many said that it's Houston that won the trade because they were able to trade Russell Westbrook who announced last month that he wanted out of Houston. Some say it's the Wizards who got the better end of the deal as not only did they acquire Westbrook who is set to reunite with his former coach, Scott Brooks, John Wall hasn't played since December 2018 due to injuries and that, this trade gives Washington a new point guard to play alongside Bradley Beal. However, some are saying that neither team nor guards that got traded are winners in this deal.

Let's remember one thing: Russell Westbrook may have played 57 regular-season games during the 2019-2020 season for Houston plus eight playoff games inside the Orlando bubble until they eliminated by the eventual champions, the Los Angeles Lakers. But like Wall, Westbrook is coming off a quad injury that made him miss the latter part of the NBA restart in Orlando. While there's no doubt that Westbrook can still compete at a high level, it's now the question of how long he can stay away from injuries once he starts playing alongside Beal. There's also the issue of Westbrook wanting to become the alpha dog of a team and that was something that made him want to leave Texas and that, observers believe that the Wizards now belong to Beal.

The fact that John Wall hasn't played a single game since 2018 puts the trade in question on the part of the Rockets who despite having the dynamic duo of Westbrook and James Harden, couldn't produce the results that were expected from them. While John Wall averaged 20 points and eight assists in 32 regular-season games of the 2018-2019 campaign, that was a long time ago. Nobody knows what kind of John Wall Houston is getting come the start of the 2020-2021 season. 

Both Wall (30) and Westbrook (32) are entering the final good years of their career and in this swap, both can be considered as winners. John Wall gets a fresh start with another team that has James Harden which means he doesn't need to score more often.  Russell Westbrook gets a fresh start after a season playing behind Harden.  While both guards are capable of putting up big numbers on the scoreboard, it will go down to how efficient Wall and Westbrook going to be for their new teams.

Westbrook had a 21.1 player efficiency rating (PER) during the 2019-2020 regular season while John Wall had an 18 PER in the 2018-2019 regular season. PER is a rating of one's per-minute productivity.

Photo is from Golden State of Mind