[ClutchFans] Rockets have been trying to trade Christian Wood since the 2021 Draft

Couldn't even get a bag of chips..

 

Stone is a deal maker, a lawyer, a scholar, and a gentleman for getting Wood out of town!

His trade grade for me went up after this wood deal… now get EG out of the way for a future first.

Great analogy regarding Sac flys clutch, good read as always

 

Love this piece. Agreed, better asset mgmt needed, but overall we are set up well. I hope folks take note that we are not as loaded with future draft picks as everyone thinks. It’s time to trade EG!

 

Horrible return, I don’t care how you spin it, but that’s on Wood more than anybody. When you pout and refuse to enter a game, you sabotage your own value. I’ll be curious to see if it does anything to his future contract prospects. My guess is that he’s on his absolute best behavior and has a good year for Dallas and gets a big contract. After that? Who the hell knows. He’s just too unpredictable.

 

People who wanted to keep him use stat sheets too much. GMs know

 

Clearly Wood wanted out - as he signed to play with Harden and Westbrook and immediately that team blew up.

He needs someone that is a recognizable leader so he can fall in line, and he didn't have that on the floor or on the bench in Houston.

I believe CWood will be a potential All - star player with Dallas......oh well, he is gone, we won't get anything close to his production with what we got back but we free up the young guys to lead.

DD

 

Well done. Especially on the point about better asset management.

We don’t need to necessarily follow the Presti model with 814 future picks owed, but the point about Oladipo is still valid to this day. We should (and probably could) have gotten more than we did.

 

Wood won’t even make the mavericks playoff rotation confirmed

 

C'mon. I'm glad he's gone, but he'll probably be better in Dallas. With Luka running things and Kidd at the helm, wouldnt be suprised if his bad attitude becomes a thing of the past. At least til he gets paid.

 

I accept that we got Wood's actual value but I'm still disappointed.

As @Hank McDowell said, however, this disappointment falls more on Wood than anyone else. We put him in the best possible position to shine but he did not. He got empty stats and played selfishly, and everyone could see it.

Oh well. My main takeaway from the trade is that I'm just glad he's out. I wish him well in Dallas. I'm ready for a new PF with our #3 pick.

 

Good write up. Completely agree with the asset management part of this.

I wish we used our cap more to take back bad contracts in exchange for picks. We did a tiny one with Doumbaya for a 2nd rd pick. We should have started at the trade deadline after Harden left and we were dumping Oladipo and Tucker. We should have taken some guys back on bad 3 year deals that expired with Wall for 1st rd picks.

I actually still think that's the best use of the cap vs overpaying some role player to come here in 2023. We really need to get rid of this pipe dream that some superstar like Jokic is gonna leave his team to come play with a bunch of unproven young guys. I'd rather continue collecting picks to build through the draft and use free agency to fill out the rotation as 5th/6th/7th option type of guys.

I have nightmares of us coming away from the 2023 free agency with the next overpaid Ryan Anderson type. Unless you're a destination city it's tough to come away from free agency a big winner.

 

Sorry Clutch, I am just not buying it.

 

The asset management aspect @Clutch brings up is spot on. Rockets have held onto their guys a bit longer than they should. Wall comes off the books next summer and cap room will open up. If the Rockets can't trade (or sign) a high level role player or star with that cap room, then they can take a page out of the OKC book and rent out that cap space for FRPs.

 

Dallas is gonna get a great player for this season, he's a classic contract year player.

I pity the team that pays him next offseason though.

 

They really, really should have dumped him at the deadline last season, but at least he's finally gone. Better late than never

 

Stone is striking me as a guy that likes to bring in a guy and run him for a couple months (or longer) to assess his value to the team and decide if he's a long term fit - Oladipo, Theis, Wood, and most other vets we've run in lieu of giving the playing time to the youngsters...
Thats a waste...
You do that on young guys with potential that you wanna see if you can tap into - not established vets...
You gotta make the assessment of whether you want a guy in your long term plans before you spend the time and/or assets to acquire him...
sometimes you get thrown a curve ball you didnt see coming regarding a player once you get him in house - but most often if you do your due diligence you shouldnt have to constantly shuffle... excluding maybe 1 or 2 fliers at the end of the bench...

 

I think you answered why the Rockets are having trouble with the asset management part, it's because they are doing the rebuild the right way and as a consequence losing a ton of games. Just like role players on championship teams get perennially overpaid, players on the worst team in the league are going to be undervalued.

Is Wood worth more than the 26th pick? Absolutely and Dallas is going to look like geniuses. But was the 26th pick the most the Rockets could get, and otherwise would have been left with nothing when Wood leaves in FA? Also true. So we may get a bit less when trading our players when the team is still stuck in rebuild phase, but if the payoff is more top 3 picks then it is totally worth it in the end.

 

Mark may have bought the Wood, but @Clutch brought the Wood on this one.


It has proven a tough market to move vets for assets outside of Harden. Clutch could have added what we got for Tucker onto that wood-fired cooking as well.

 

Asset management is easy to judge after the fact. The Rockets were also fighting a media bias ( thanks Dwight) and an industry bias ( thanks adidas) and a geographic culture bias ( thanks hot, flat Houston, TX). Chances had to be taken…