The dallas mavericks have agreed to exchange the no. 26 typical select in the 2022 nba draft, boban marjanovic, trey burke, marquese chriss and sterling brown to the houston rockets in trade for christian wood, according to shams charania. This exchange will now not be completed till draft night because of the reality that the mavericks owe the new york knicks a pinnacle-10 covered choose in 2023.
The “stepien rule” — which you could study more about here — prevents teams from being with out first-spherical choices in consecutive seasons. Which means the mavericks will turn out to be making the no. 26 pick for the rockets, then buying and selling that player as part of the exchange. Wood, who has been with the rockets due to the fact that 2020, averaged 17. 9 points, 10. 1 rebounds and one block in step with game, while shooting 51 percent from the field and 39 percent from three-factor land. He’s in the final yr of a 3-year, $forty one million deal, and can be extension eligible six months after the exchange is entire, should the mavericks need to head down that course.
The rockets signed wood ahead of the 2020-21 season, hoping he might be a complementary piece to help james harden and russell westbrook. That, of course, in no way came to bypass, as both harden and westbrook forced their way out previous to the season, and the rockets have become a rebuilding group. Now, at the least, they have got been capable of flip him for an extra first-spherical pick.
The mavericks are coming off a wonder run to the western convention finals, but after they were given there it fast have become clear that they did not have enough skills throughout the board to deal with the golden kingdom warriors. Specifically, their frontcourt options have been quite limited. As a end result, they’ve long past out and collected christian timber, who will right away make them a higher group. A rangy, 6-foot-10 big man who can area the ground and knock down 3-suggestions, and also perform as a lob risk within the pick out-and-roll, timber fits in perfectly with how the mavericks like to play.
With wood assuming the beginning middle position, the mavericks’ offense should emerge as even stronger. The only capacity downside for the mavericks is how wood will effect the locker room. Regardless of his clear skills, this may be wood’s seventh crew in seven seasons, and he had a few outstanding issues with the rockets. In early january, previous to their game in opposition to the denver nuggets, he induced shootaround to be not on time by way of skipping covid-19 testing.
He turned into benched to begin that game, showed little attempt within the first 1/2 whilst he did move in, and become then faced by means of teammates and assistant educate john lucas at halftime. After he refused to go returned in the game in the 2nd half, the team suspended him for one recreation. Winning commonly solves the ones kind of troubles, although, and the mavericks have to win even more with timber within the mix. Plus, they simply did not surrender something of be aware to get him, and he simplest has 365 days left on his deal. If for some purpose he’s now not a terrific fit they can just cut their losses on the quit of the season.
