One of the biggest Dallas Mavericks’ problems is their biggest big: Christian Wood
After the Dallas Mavericks season is humanly put down, their Superstar Slovenian should go to a Croatian beach for a month, while Luka Doncic’s bosses need to be honest with themselves about his teammates.
Not Kyrie Irving. Not even God has any idea how that will play out this summer when The Thinker can become a free agent.
It’s the Mavs’ OGs (other guys). Some of these guys have to go, and Dwight Powell isn’t the problem. He’s not a solution, either.
On Monday night in Indianapolis, the Mavs had no problems as they defeated the Indiana Pacers 127-104. It snapped the Mavs’ four-game losing streak, and keeps their embarrassing play-in hopes alive.
Things are so bad the Mavs aren’t even as good as the Los LeBron Lakers.
The Pacers played without regulars Tyrese Haliburton, Myles Turner, Buddy Hield and Chris Duarte. Dale Davis, Vern Fleming, Greg Dreiling and Steve Stipanovich were out, too.
The Mavs have six games remaining to make a playoffs, or a play-in, where they know they don’t stand much of a chance to do anything other than lose. The Mavs are currently one win behind Oklahoma City for the last play-in spot in the Western Conference.
Whether the end comes in the playoffs, the play-in, or the regular season, it will be ugly.
It will end ugly because this roster is littered with holes, starting with a player who is more of a problem than a solution. When Mavs stole a versatile big man from Houston last summer it’s apparent now that the Rockets pulled one over on the Mavs.
Houston sending Christian Wood to the Mavs isn’t in the same discussion as the Lakers shipping Lamar Odom our way in 2011, but this was a trash trade.
In June of 2022, the Mavs acquired Wood from the Rockets in exchange for Sterling Brown, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss, Boban Marjanovic and Wendell Moore Jr.
Only Boban has played for the Rockets this season.
Even in the age of the nomadic player where All-Star players change teams like they do burner phones, Wood’s timeline makes no sense given the stats.
The Dallas Mavericks center/forward can easily average 18 points, nine rebounds and a block a game.
For a 27-year-old player, with that type of production, the Mavericks should be Wood’s second or third team at most. Instead, the Mavericks are his seventh NBA franchise.
The Mavs learned the hard way why Wood is on his seventh team. They learned the hard way why Houston basically traded him away for a grocery bag of G-League players, and one of the most endearing human beings in NBA history.
There is something always missing from Wood’s game. There always is one component or two that undermines what could be a wonderful player.
He struggles with assignments. He struggles with plays. He struggles with effort. All of this in a contract year, too.
This season, he averages 17.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks. He averages those numbers in 26.6 minutes per game.
In the blowout win against the Pacers, Wood played 12 minutes.
It’s not as if Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd has any reason to keep any productive player on the bench. Kidd is keeping Wood’s minutes low for the same reason his previous teams preferred him elsewhere.
Kidd needs players he can trust, and he doesn’t trust Wood.
Wood is not the reason this season has gone into the toilet. He also hasn’t helped.
When this season does end, the Mavs will have an array of hard decisions to make.
Christian Wood isn’t one of them.
