The Mavericks supplemented the starting line-up with Christian Wood, who is almost certainly better than anyone else they could have discovered with 26.th choose a draft on Thursday night.
By sending the Houston Rockets 6:10 Wood for their selection of drafts and role players, the Mavericks got the equivalent of a lottery selection that can kick back, score a goal, shoot from the perimeter and block throws.
Last week’s deal was not allowed to go official until Mavericks was elected by Wendell Moore Jr. 26.th and then he was able to pass on with the Rockets along with Boban Marjanovic, Trey Burke, Marquese Chris, and Sterling Brown.
The Rockets then took Moore to Minnesota. The rubber stamp of over-approval did not arrive until Friday.
Because the Mavericks do not have a first-round selection in 2023, they could not trade that selection until they made their choice that year. Basically, they made a draft for the Rockets.
Woodis is gaining strength from the Mavericks, which should fit well into Mavericks’ offensive strategies aimed at placing blows around Luka Dončić. Wood hit a 39 percent three-pointer last season. At the beginning of next season, he will be 27 years old.
“Christian is giving us something we don’t have,” CEO Nico Harrison said after the NBA reached an agreement on Friday at about two a.m. Dallas time. “He’s a good rebounder. He’s super athletic. He does a great job in pick-and-play with Luka. He can play over the rim. He can also shoot. He’s an attacking man over there. So we’re excited about it.”
At the start of the 2020-21 season, the Mavericks played in the fifth game of the season in Houston. Wood had just joined the Rockets from Detroit in a trade. He began his first season in Houston with seven consecutive games with 20 or more points, including 23, and seven table balls when the Mavericks visited on January 4, 2021.
Like most others in the NBA, the Mavericks were fascinated by Wood, who was an alluring combination of size, strokes, goals and rebounds.
Have we mentioned that he can kick back?
As the Mavericks play-offs show, they need better setbacks and Wood is clearly helping. If he’s a two-digit rebound, the Mavericks can live with everything he supplies in the scoring department.
Wood, like all the players Mavericks sent to Houston, is in the final year of its contract, valued at about $ 14.3 million between 2022 and 2023. It has the right to extend it for six months after the league has formalized the transaction.
Harrison said Wood certainly has the potential to be a long-standing center for Mavericks, although there is still much to prove.
“I think we both have a lot to offer each other,” he said. “I think we need to show him a little bit and he needs to show us a little bit if that makes sense.
“We don’t have a man to do what he does. We just don’t do it. There are several men in the league who do it. But whether you get them or not. He was the type we saw, and that was just logical. It fits a piece that is not on our list.
The Rockets are undergoing major reconstruction and are at risk of losing or depreciating Wood next summer. This trade gave them another first round of assets to add to their reserves, and it did not clog future wage limits.
For the Mavericks, they get a center that goes straight to the starting lineup and can stretch the floor, roll to the edge and play a solid defense.
In other words, he checks a lot of boxes in their “needs” department.
Last season, Wood Rockets scored an average of 17.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game in 68 games.
Two years ago, he scored an average of 21 points and 9.6 rebounds with 1.2 blocks.
Wood spent two years in Nevada-Las Vegas, but was not drafted in 2015 after a sophomore season. He bounced all over the league under short-term contracts and even did a short time in the Chinese league.
He only broke through in the 2019-20 season, scoring an average of 13.1 points for Detroit and taking 6.3 rebounds. Houston signed a three-year contract with him this summer.
If the Mavericks had adhered to 26th choose, they would have searched the proverb for a needle in a haystack. Past 26th NBA draft options include Bones Hyland (2021, Denver), Landry Shamet (2018, Philadelphia), George Hill (2008, San Antonio), Kevin Martin (2004, Sacramento) and Vlade Divac (1989, LA Lakers).
26 years of historyth the selection also includes Caleb Swanigan (2017), Nikola Milutinov (2015), Jordan Hamilton (2011), Ndudi Ebi (2003) and Mamadou N’diaye (2000). So to put it mildly in a confusing bag.
Twitter: @ESefko
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