The Los Angeles Lakers just took their first significant loss with Kyrie Irving staying in Brooklyn and John Wall going next door to the Clippers. Finally, Wall is out of there.

What they were doing to John Wall, for as long as they were doing it, was criminal...

I wouldn't be surprised if he stopped being such a great veteran for those young guys in H-Town - I certainly wouldn't blame him. Maybe they thought that too because he is finally free.

There should be rules that stop teams from holding bad contracted players on young teams prisoner after a certain amount of years. But last week - Wall was training down in Miami by himself, fully recovered from his heel and Achilles injuries. He is finally on a legitimate championship-contending team for the first time in his career- what a feel-good story.

He still put up 20 and 7, albeit on a bad team, but there is value there. It will be interesting to see how much of that first step he still has left, but I am optimistic just because of how fresh he is and the time he had to recover his body. I mean - his pretty much done the Michael Jordan baseball break from basketball. But, at least if he's fortunate enough with great health, this makes the clippers the number one - 'holy crap, if these guys all stay healthy, big things can happen' team.

Kawhi Leonard is returning from an ACL, and if Paul George is also healthy for the playoffs, this team is a contender. Wall adds that potential explosive scoring stretch from time to time. He can come off the bench for Reggie Jackson, and with Bledsoe also moving around that rotation, this squad is deadly.

John Wall is 31 years old, but it feels like his 37. He is closer to Andrew Wiggin's age than he is to Danny Green's age. And when your pay someone that type of money to not play - 31 becomes 28.

Wall has trained with Paul George multiple times in the Olympics and has proven capability to buy in and know his role within a team. He solves a running problem with the Clippers that has been their lack of a fundamental point guard. His expected speed fits the drive and kick offensive philosophy Tyronn Lue loves to run. The Clippers already have a history of reviving careers from castoffs to indispensable assets; take Reggie Jackson and Nicholas Batum, for example. So everything seems great for the Clippers on paper, and it will be interesting to see how this team develops chemistry when the next season starts. 

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