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John Wall Agrees to 4-Year, $170 Million Contract Extension with Wizards
July 22, 2017
John Wall reaffirmed his commitment to the Washington Wizards, agreeing to terms on a four-year contract extension worth $170 million on Friday, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Wojnarowski added the deal includes a player option for the final year and a 15 percent trade kicker.
Wall gave his thoughts on the new deal on UNINTERRUPTED:
LeBron James congratulated Wall on the new deal as well:
David Aldridge of TNT was the first to report Wall had agreed to Washington's designated player veteran exception, noting that it will pay him a total of $207 million through 2023.
Aldridge added the extension will start in 2019 after Wall's existing five-year deal expires.
Wall is coming off his best year in the NBA. He averaged a career-high 23.1 points, 10.7 assists and 2.0 steals per game. He also shot a career-best 45.1 percent from the field.
As a team, the Wizards also took a step forward in 2016-17. Although they lost in the second round for the third time in four years, their 49 regular-season wins were sixth-most in franchise history and their highest total since 1978-79.
Rather than Washington's Game 7 defeat to the Boston Celtics, the lasting image from the season for most Wizards fans will be Wall jumping on top of the scorer's table after hitting a game-winning three-pointer in the final seconds of Game 6.
Wall's big year was well-timed for the Wizards. He made the All-NBA third team, meaning the Wizards were allowed to offer him a supermax extension.
The Washington Post's Tim Bontemps first reported in June the Wizards were planning to give Wall the max contract. The four-time All-Star point guard said he wanted to stay in the nation's capital but still evaluate all of his options before agreeing to the deal:
"I just want to kind of see what they do throughout free agency, talk to my family, talk to my agency and my managers and see what we want to do. It's definitely a place I want to be … I've just got to make sure things are going in the right direction, and make sure we are building the team in the way we want to be, and don't get locked up in a situation where you might not feel comfortable.
But I love being in Washington, I love playing there, and there's not another city I'd really want to play for."
Wall's presence ensures the Wizards can continue battling for a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference for the foreseeable future. And given the landscape of the conference, they have a far better outlook compared to many of their rivals.
LeBron James is entering the final year of his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the chances he'd leave Cleveland a second time have seemingly increased after a dysfunctional summer for the Cavs.
The Boston Celtics failed to land Paul George and are facing a difficult decision about Isaiah Thomas' future in another year.
The Pacers and Atlanta Hawks signaled a bit of a rebuild, with Indiana trading George and Atlanta offloading Dwight Howard after only one season.
The Toronto Raptors remain a strong regular-season team, but their reliance on DeMar DeRozan continues to be a fatal flaw in the postseason.
While few would favor the Wizards in a seven-game series with the Golden State Warriors, it's hard to see how Wall could've had a better situation without taking less money to pair up with one or more stars out West.
Signing Wall to the extension will remove a lot of stress from the Wizards front office.
This offseason illustrated how teams can be put between a rock and a hard place when their biggest stars are entering the final year of their contract.
The Wizards were not yet at that point with Wall, whose previous deal ran out in 2019, but he would've undoubtedly made fans nervous if he had turned down Washington's extension.