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.

make a lot of sense on Boston’s side.

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Celtics legend: Heat won’t make it out of 1st round with Damian Lillard

Damian Lillard, Jimmy Butler, and Bam Adebayo would make up a new big three in South Beach if he

were to be moved to the Heat. And while the trio might undoubtedly frustrate rivals, one Celtics icon is

skeptical that it will be enough to go to the NBA Finals.

On Showtime, Paul Pierce, Rachel Nichols, and Tracy McGrady explored the possibility of Lillard joining

the Heat. According to Pierce, Miami won’t advance very far in the playoffs if they sign him.

“You put them together they won’t make it out of the first round,” Pierce said.