Mavs Acquire Christian Wood (Wow)

Christian Wood is a player whose career trajectory perplexes me.  A couple of years ago, when he was on the Pistons, Wood was being touted as the premiere young bigman in the league.  Then he went to the Rockets, I forget exactly how or why, but I think it had something to do with the Pistons being garbage.  This was around the same time that the Beard was leaving, but I remember being so impressed by this move on the part of Rockets that I even advocated Harden sticking around to see how things played out.

Since then, like I don't really know what happened.  I saw Wood play a couple of times, and he looks just as good as advertised, just a bit skinny.  I also know he spent a lot of time injured in Houston, and I even think they benched him for a while in the name of playing younger players, even though Christian is still kinda NBA young himself.

One article I came across is arguing that it's good the Rockets got rid of him, because he's a defensive liability.  Well then he shouldn't really have a problem on the Mavericks, a team that doesn't really seem to care about interior defense anyway.

Earlier, I advocated them going after DeAndre Ayton.  Maybe they'll still go pursue him or another traditional big, as Ayton could like play the 5, and Wood the 4.  But that isn't very likely because again, the Mavs' roster is about as anti-big as you can get.  In fact they basically traded their two backup centers, Marquese Chriss and Boban Marjanovic, for Wood, and it wouldn't be overly surprising if Houston ended up waiving them both (though Chriss looks like he may be a good fit).

Second is that, by the looks of things, most of the Mavs available dough this offseason is going to be dedicated to locking down Jalen Brunson.  It looks like NYK is ready to pay Brunson $25mil a year (!), which sounds like a very Knicks' thing to do.  I personally am not convinced that Brunson is worth that money, but if anyone should give it to him it should be the Mavs, as he's already proven an ability to represent in their uniform.

So what we may be looking at is something like Wood playing the 4, and Powell the 5.  And that isn't a terribly bad idea considering the success Dallas has already had with small lineups.

CONCLUSION

One thing I learned it not to doubt Jason Kidd and them.  Kidd is building a contender based on his own vision, and he isn't rushing to do so.  He's from the age of NBA history where players understood that Rome wasn't built in a day.

So it's like Wood is an exciting addition, one that should make the Mavs better and more must-watch.  Acquiring him is a step in the right direction, especially if he's healthy and they can retain him.  Because then Dallas can take it's time in finding another big to complement their roster, one who's formidable defensively, unless, as it more appears Jason is trying to do, their goal is to just run the other team out of the building.