Dallas Mavericks acquire Christian Wood
The Dallas Mavericks agreed to trade the No. 26 pick in the 2022 draft Wednesday, trading it to the Houston Rockets. Along with the pick, Dallas will also be sending Houston four expiring contracts, including Sterling Brown, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss and Boban Marjanovic, for Rockets big man Christian Wood.
What Dallas received:
Wood, who is 26 years old and entering the final year of his contract, has made a name for himself over the past few seasons. After a slow start in his first few years, bouncing around from team-to-team and never receiving much playing time, Wood finally got his opportunity in the 2019-2020 season with the Detroit Pistons.
In the 2019-2020 season Wood played in, at that time, a career-high 62 games, even getting to start in 12 of them. The 6-foot 10-inch power forward/center made the most of his chances, averaging 13.1 points per game on 56.7% shooting.
His play was enough to earn him a three-year deal worth $41 million, and he was moved to Houston in a sign-and-trade. In his two seasons with Houston, Wood’s numbers were great, though the overall teams number were not.
Wood played in 109 games for the Rockets, averaging 19.1 points and 10 rebounds per game, while shooting 50.7% from the field and 38.4% from 3. Wood also showed rare skill traits from a big in his time in Houston, having to create a lot of shots for himself, including 3-pointers off the dribble.
It’s hard to believe he will be asked to do these things in Dallas. The Mavericks are a team who get a ton of wide open looks, and he will certainly be used as the primary partner in the pick-and-roll game with Luka Doncic.
With his skill set, Wood should be a great partner for Doncic, giving them the ability to run the pick-and-roll or the pick-and-pop. While Wood is entering the final year of his contract, this could be a good thing for the Mavericks.
He will be an unrestricted free agent and will have Bird Rights, essentially making the Mavericks eligible to go over the salary cap to re-sign him. In the final year of his deal and playing for a contending team for the first time in his career, Wood will certainly be looking to make the most out of this season.
Arguably the No. 1 thing Mavericks fans were hoping to see their team add this offseason was a starting center. Not only was the center position something Dallas lacked at during the regular season, it was a glaring hole for most of the postseason, including the Western Conference Finals, where the Mavericks were dominated by Kevon Looney, who had games of 21 points and 12 rebounds and another of 10 points and 18 rebounds.
What Dallas sent:
Remember when we spent over 9,000 words last weeks, doing different draft exercises? One of them included looking at the 26th pick in each of the last 20 drafts, as well as who the teams should have taken at 26. We also looked at what the Mavericks have done in each of the last 20 drafts.
Well, for the time being, all of that was for not. The Mavericks sent the 26th pick of the draft to Houston, as the main asset in this deal. Dallas also sent Sterling Brown, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss and Boban Marjanovic, all of which are on expiring contracts.
Dumping these contracts also act as a positive thing for the Mavericks, as they cleared up three roster spots heading into the offseason. We will spend more time looking at possible free agents for Dallas in the coming weeks, but there are a number of options for the Mavericks to continue to improve this roster through free agency.
While the Mavericks don’t have the cap space to make huge moves, there are a few routes Dallas can take to add solid players. For one, Dallas has a Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception worth up to $6.39 million. What this will do, is allow the Mavericks to sign players who qualify for the MLE, without hurting their salary cap.
Players who Dallas could possibly pursue with this include, Joe Ingles, Jusuf Nurkic, Mo Bamba, Bobby Portis and Victor Oladipo. Like I said, we will dive much deeper into all of the possibilities over the next few weeks, but those are just a few examples.
Dallas fans should also keep an eye on players they could sign to veteran minimums deals. Again, while we will take a much deeper look in the upcoming weeks, a few examples of players they could possibly be pursuing on veteran minimums could include guys like Rodney Hood and Tony Snell.
Due to the Stepien rule, the trade will not officially go through until June 23 during the draft, when the Mavericks have made their selection with the No. 26 pick. Dallas will essentially be making the pick for Houston and then making the trade.
All-in-all, this looks to be a great move for Nico Harrison and Co. The Mavericks landed the starting center they had been looking for, in return for the 26th overall pick of the draft, as well as four expiring contracts.
They also cleared up three roster spots as they head into free agency. We knew Nico and the front office would have to get creative this summer, if they wanted to make the moves they felt could turn this team into legitimate contenders.
So far, it looks like they are doing exactly that. Stay tuned with Front Porch News for all things Dallas Mavericks this summer.
