I am very skeptical of Russ being a winning basketball player at this point of his career. He'll get his points, assists, and rebounds, but the efficiency likely won't be good, the defense likely won't be good, and the teamwork likely won't be good.
I'd rather have Wall if he's basically what he once was, but that's unlikely.
So this is just a meh deal to me. Trading one bad contract of a player that can't afford to lose much athletically but likely has for another bad contract of a player that can't afford to lose much athletically and is currently losing it.
Don't really disagree with you.
I really lean that Wall is a much different player if he can even stay on the court this year, and in that sense trading him for ANYTHING now, even a lateral move is good in the sense that when people see in a couple weeks he's not the same you would be stuck with that contract for 3 more years.
I think we are short enough feature players that Russ can have 50-60 touches a game and it doesn't hurt us a lot. Now that might change if the new kid develops (and if he's not the one that tested positive this week) into a scoring threat. But I don't know how much ball is left for others after Russ, Beal and Betrans get the ball, and that leaves exactly zero inside game. So I really hope Rui leads the league in rebounds this year.