Updated Thursday, June 16, 2022 –
13:32
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He comes from the Houston Rockets, where he has averaged 19.1 points and 9.9 rebounds.
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Christian Wood will have had better days than the 2015 draft: in the same night they closed the door on him in the NBA and he left his girlfriend. There are those who wake up with the first slap and those who need some more. It took Wood two more years, when a Chinese league team fired him a month after signing him and without having made his debut. It has taken him a while to settle down, but today he is a very effective pvot who the Dallas Mavericks have just signed as Luka Doncic’s new partner.
Wood arriving in Dallas from the Houston Rockets, where he has averaged 19.1 points and 9.9 rebounds over two seasons. In exchange, the Mavericks will send their 26th pick in the upcoming draft, along with a handful of players from deep in the dugout (Boban Marjanovic, Marquese Chriss, Trey Burke, Sterling Brown). A very cheap bet in search of a pvot who better exploits the options that Doncic opens up.
Christian Wood unites the offensive qualities of the Mavs’ two main centers: He can continue strong to the rim as Dwight Powell (1.2 points per possession in these actions) or threaten from outside as the German Max Glue (39% in triples shooting almost five per game). On paper, he can be a very effective partner for Luka Doncic on the block, albeit at the cost of giving up defense.
For Dallas, it’s a low-risk move: Wood has just one more year on his contract ($14.3 million) and none of the players traded were in the Dallas rotation. Jason Kidd (None reached four minutes per game in the playoffs). They change the 26th pick in the draft to have a young pvot on trial for a few months, with doubts about his character, but who can fit in well with his star.
Because if it were for talent, Wood would have been chosen in the first round of the draft. But teams ask. And from him they learned that he was an immature, punctual and very little responsible player. The image of him, collapsed in the room he had rented at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas for the ‘party’, went viral.
Benefit for Usman Garuba
The years it has taken him to establish himself (he went through four NBA teams, three in the development league, and failed in China before exploding with the Detroit Pistons) have helped him mature, although doubts remain: this season he was suspended by the Houston Rockets for an episode of locker room misbehavior.
This move could also benefit from rebound to Usman Garuba. The Rockets have gotten rid of Wood to make room for the Turk Alperen Sengnwho has aimed high in his first year, but the Spanish international could also benefit from those free minutes in the internal rotation.
Garuba, who missed two months with a wrist injury, has spent his first NBA season alternating between the Rockets (24 games) and the development league affiliate (5). After a first year of acclimatization, and with the Rockets committed to the young movement, Wood’s departure could give him more air and more opportunities.
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