West Notes: Clippers, John Wall, Rockets, Lakers

Clippers

Point guard John Wall is clearly excited to be joining Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, among others, with the Clippers.

“I don’t have to do it every night, I don’t have to be Batman every night for us to win,” Wall said, via Rory Maher of Hoops Rumors. “That’s the ultimate goal for me is [at] this part of my career, I don’t want to have to be the Batman every night to try to win. On our team that we have, I think anyone can be Batman.”

Wall finally received a long-awaited buyout from the Rockets, and then immediately headed to LA.

“I really didn’t care about all the other teams,” Wall said, via Maher. “The other teams are great, and I’m glad teams wanted to come after me, but I kind of looked at the picture of like, where can I go [where] I don’t have to be the John Wall from 2016 and have to carry the load and do all those [things] and have the pressure on me. I think [LA] was missing a piece of having a point guard, and it’s a great situation for me to be there.”

Rockets

Guard Kevin Porter Jr. and the Rockets have engaged in preliminary talks on a contract extension, per ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Tim MacMahon.

“I’ve heard there have been some very, very, very, very, very, very, very preliminary talks about talking at some point in the future, but some openness to a deal there,” Lowe said on The Lowe Post podcast.

“I think there are mixed opinions internally. And, you know, frankly, externally the opinion I get most often is the Rockets should not give him an extension,” MacMahon added.

Porter, 22, is 6-foot-4 and averaged 15.6 points and 6.2 assists in 61 games last season.

• Rockets guard Eric Gordon is believed to be very available and continues to be linked to the Lakers, as we relayed here.

Lakers

Coach Darvin Ham isn’t the only newbie for the Lakers. Several free agents are also on their way, and Ham said he is confident the team will get the most out of them.

The list includes guards Lonnie Walker IV, Juan Toscano-Anderson and Troy Brown Jr., as well as big men Thomas Bryant and Damian Jones. All are younger players who should add some speed to an older roster.

“There’s various circumstances as to why people have a dip in shooting,” Ham said, via Kyle Goon of the LA Daily News. “Sometimes it’s injury-related, sometimes it’s minutes, who you’re out on the floor with, how many touches. So only thing we’re worried about is what we’re doing going forward, and we feel we’ve got a good group – a good young group of free agents that’s gonna come in and make an impact.”

• We have much more on the Lakers and their reported pursuit of Nets guard Kyrie Irving. Be sure to check it out on our Lakers page right here.