After James Harden’s exit, John Wall feels like ‘the franchise guy’ for Rockets

John Wall: “I feel like the franchise guy, now that James has left. You rarely get the chance to be the franchise with more than one team.”

After Thursday’s blowout win at Memphis, the Houston Rockets are now 9-4 in games that John Wall has played in this season. More impressively, they’re 7-0 when the five-time All-Star plays without James Harden.

Wall had 22 points and 8 assists in leading the latest victory, which is the seventh by Houston (11-10) in its last eight games. And in postgame comments, the floor general made it clear that he’s beginning to take charge of the Rockets — even in just his first season with the squad.

Here’s what the 30-year-old, who was traded to Houston in early December from Washington, said in Thursday’s postgame session:

I feel like the franchise guy, now that James [Harden] has left. You very rarely get the opportunity to be a franchise [guy] in two different cities and two different teams. … I feel like that’s my job, to be the leader of this team.

I don’t have to be the leading scorer for our team, I don’t have to take the most shots. My job is to make sure everybody is comfortable, that everybody is playing at a high level, and everybody has respect for one another. And that we trust our coaching staff with whatever gameplan they give us, and they trust me out there as being basically the coach on the floor, when I have the ball in my hands.

Later in the interview session, Wall said he didn’t particularly care if he receives an All-Star spot for his contributions this season. As it is, he says his primary focus is on getting the Rockets to the 2021 NBA playoffs.

Led by Wall, Houston returns to action on Saturday night with a home game versus San Antonio. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Central. With co-star Christian Wood likely sidelined for some time with an ankle injury, contributions from Wall will only become more important.

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