Hoops Habit
Fansided

Philadelphia 76ers: Gerald Wallace Likely At End Of Line

By Phil Watson

Jan 25, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Boston Celtics forward Gerald Wallace (45) passes off in front of Golden State Warriors forward Andre Iguodala (9) in the second half of their NBA basketball game at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 25, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Boston Celtics forward Gerald Wallace (45) passes off in front of Golden State Warriors forward Andre Iguodala (9) in the second half of their NBA basketball game at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

According to a report, the Philadelphia 76ers waived forward Gerald Wallace on Saturday in what could be the last stop in a 14-year NBA career.

Mark Stein of ESPN.com reported that teams were notified at 5 p.m. Eastern on Saturday that Wallace had been placed on waivers. He becomes a free agent Tuesday if he clears waivers, which is likely given that a claiming team would have to pick up the one year and $10.1 million remaining on the four-year deal Wallace signed with the Brooklyn Nets in 2012.

ALSO ON HOOPSHABIT: 25 Best Players To Play For The 76ers

If it is the end of the line for Wallace, it’s been a wild one—€”from expansion draft fodder with the Sacramento Kings to All-Star status with the Charlotte Bobcats to guy glued to the end of the bench for the Boston Celtics.

More from Philadelphia 76ers

Wallace had been traded twice in 22 days in July, first from the Celtics to the Golden State Warriors in a deal that sent David Lee to Boston and later to the 76ers in exchange for Jason Thompson.

He was a player generally believed to have left college too soon, opting into the NBA after his freshman year at Alabama in 2000-01, where he averaged less than 10 points and six rebounds a game.

The Kings took a shot at him with the 25th pick in the 2001 draft and he barely played in Sacramento, averaging 9.7 minutes per game over three seasons before being left exposed to the expansion draft in the summer of 2004.

Charlotte selected him and plugged him in at small forward. Crash took Charlotte by storm, leading the NBA in steals in 2005-06 and earning an All-Star bid in 2010 while leading the then-Bobcats to the playoffs for the first time.

At the trade deadline in 2011, Wallace was shipped to the Portland Trail Blazers for three players, two first-round picks and cash.

The Blazers flipped him a year later for the corpse of Mehmet Okur, Shawne Williams and a first-round pick from the then-New Jersey Nets which turned into Damian Lillard.

His playing time and production continued to dip with the Nets before his contract was used to help balance out the July 2013 trade that sent Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to Brooklyn.

Wallace made 16 starts and averaged 24.4 minutes a game for the Celtics in 2013-14, but became the forgotten man last season, getting off the bench just 32 times for 8.9 minutes a game.

He played four minutes in Game 4 of Boston’€™s first-round loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, going 0-for-1 with a rebound in what was likely his final NBA game.

Wallace’€™s game was about defense and crashing toward the basket and he never really developed a reliable jump shot, a gap in his game that became more and more glaring as he hit his 30s and some of his athleticism began to fade.

When he did play last season, he took more than 70 percent of his shots at the rim, converting only 45.8 percent of them.

Live Feed

These NBA stars might switch teams sooner rather than later
These NBA stars might switch teams sooner rather than later /

All U Can Heat

  • NBA Trade Rumors: 3 Joel Embiid Trade ideas Heat should consider over Dame LillardSir Charles In Charge
  • Grading the 5 worst James Harden trades on the internetThe Sixer Sense
  • NBA rumors: Klay to Bahamas, Lack of Lillard suitors explained, Sixers good vibesFanSided
  • 76ers guard Patrick Beverley’s latest remarks could enrage Celtics fansThe Sixer Sense
  • Sixers Podcast: Ben Simmons return to Philly + Tobias Harris tradesThe Sixer Sense

    • Still, he had a nice run for a player who appeared for all the world to be a late first-round disappointment based on his first three seasons. Going to Charlotte gave him minutes and a chance to carve out a niche, which he did as a double-double defender who played a ton of minutes, rebounded and got to the foul line a lot.

    During his All-Star season in 2009-10, he averaged 18.2 points and 10 rebounds a game for the Bobcats while earning the only All-Defensive selection of his career and playing a whopping 41 minutes a night for Larry Brown‘€™s club.

    He got to the line more than seven times a game that season and hit a respectable 77.6 percent. He averaged a career-high 19.4 points per game in an injury-shortened 2007-08 season in Charlotte.

    Wallace won’t be in the conversation for the Hall of Fame, not with a career that appears over with him 67 points shy of 10,000 for his career. Instead, he’€™ll be remembered as a guy who worked hard to become a star for an expansion team and helped it make the transition to playoff team, however brief that transition lasted.

    But 832 NBA games, an All-Star appearance and a highlight reel full of spectacular plays isn’€™t a terrible legacy for a talented but limited player who showed up to work for a decade and a half.

    Next: Are The 2014-15 Golden State Warriors An All-Time Great Team?

    More from Hoops Habit