Christian Wood... Would you trade him? (Fit seems off)

Wood already proved himself to be capable. Then KPJr proved himself to be more than capable. Now the young guys will need their touches. He will have to prove he can make it work on a team of budding stars. Simmons will have an even bigger ego if traded, he’ll want the ball to get revenge on his past team. Wood’s already got his contract and won’t need another big season. His role and everyone’s role will rely on how the chemistry will develop throughout the season. He’s already injury prone and would benefit from a couple of seasons refining his team game.

 

With Gordon and Wall coming off the books and the chances of Houston signing a free agent to a max contract in the near future are pretty slim, I no longer mind the "Wood for the Max" scenario if and only if his production warrants said contract. At worst, he and his max contract will be halfway (or close to it) through once Green's max contract kicks in. At best, he'll be worth what we pay him and this team will be competitive. Somewhere in between would be he's a decent player (a 3rd best player on a championship-level team) and either we trade him to one of those teams or we keep him because we become a championship-level team.

The only concern I have wouldn't be the dollars and cents--it's whether or not Wood can accept a secondary or tertiary role if/when Green and/or Sengun develops into All-Stars. Those types of players are harder to deal with and, eventually, gets traded from the team.

 

By the time the Rockets can sign Green to his first extension, they (and the rest of the league) should have a pretty good idea of his value.

 

Theoretically, yes he can beat 5's off the dribble, but is that really the offense you want to run...Wood ISO'ing 30 feet from the basket?

He is not effective enough doing it. He should stick to P&R

 

Then Silas should run PnR instead of having Wood sit on the perimeter.

Theis is setting more screens in PnR than Wood so far.

 

Yeah I agree. He is not being used correctly.

 

it doesnt work like that, sometimes player sucks but you are bullied by the fans and/or media to sign him or even to draft him...lolololol or you have a false hope or its not really clear if the player has more room to develop....

how many teams drafted, extended or even supermaxed players that were lost cases already to an objective eye mostly because of the hype.... Melo, andrew wiggins, benn simmons, john wall, victor oladipo, etc just some of the names that immediately come to mind...

 

It’s premature to pull the trigger on Wood. We haven’t seen his full potential in a complete season. Let’s make the call thereafter.

Simmons…I don’t like his drama.

 

What are u envisioning his production would have to be in order to be worthy of a max contract?

to me, he’s an off-brand Nikola Vucevic, and I would cry tears of anger and sorrow if the Rockets had a Nikola Vucevic on a max deal

 

I'm really torn .... On one hand , I look at the statistics and see a guy putting up 20/10 while shooting 37% from 3 and 53% overall .... there's only 4 other players in the league that put up similar numbers / shooting from 3 and those dudes are top tier players.
They were very good last year prior to his injury too .... had an 8-3 stretch after the Harden trade to get back to .500 , then the wheels fell off. They only won 9 more games all year.
On the other hand , I see the hot mess the offense has been in both games.

I wonder how much of his poor play is not having a point guard get him the ball in the right spots. Olynyk got them in the right plays , that's sorely missed right now but they were terrible defensively together.

I don't think Theis works either , or at least so far .... he hasn't been a good enough shooter to keep the floor spaced so far.

Wood & KPJ should be running a pick and X (roll / pop) damn near every trip down the court. They just don't ....

Honestly I think you have to see how / if he improves this season and if you don't plan on keeping him , you move him next year - He'll still have the same value then as now to contenders who think they are a CW away and that's the only teams that would be interested at either point in time.


As for the people talking about drafting a big , I don't know if that alone is the solution or not , might be better off drafting one and trading for another big (assuming you are moving Wood) as they tend to take quite a while to develop. Not many are viable on a playoff team in the first couple years.

 

Wood and Olynyk on the court is a defensive disaster…neither is protecting the rim or guarding the perimeter

we had a 117.4 defensive rating in 436 minutes when those 2 were on the court together…all-time level atrocious

Olynyk isn’t the answer unless u don’t care about defense

 

Christian Wood’s 20 and 10 averages are cute, but his team has gone 13-40 while he’s been putting up those numbers as a starter

as bad as Ben Simmons is viewed right now, there are many on here who feel he could make this team mediocre and ruin getting a top lotto pick…I ain’t never heard somebody say they’re worried that Christian Wood and his 20 and 10 averages might get us too many wins

So where’s the impact?

 

I've said I wouldn't trade Wood this season but what about that alternate universe where you kept Kelly-O via his bird rights and traded Wood ?
He's a far superior offensive player in every aspect - BBIQ , passer , shooter , playmaker and he was able to be had for chump change in Detroit and you never really have to worry about "giving him the max". And its pretty much a wash defensively ..... neither of them are anything more than average to below in that regard. Hell Olynyk might be the more effective defender too ....

Then you have the player(s) / assets you got in exchange for Wood to add to your war chest.
I bet you could have gotten at least 2 #1 picks plus a young player from a number of teams who believe they are a big man away from being a contender.

 

With all due respect, I hate the whole, “We didn’t win, so X player is not impactful” argument. Lebron won ROY, but his team only won 17 games. Does that mean he wasn’t impactful? It’s not Wood’s that last year was a chaotic nightmare.

Also, regarding your overarching argument: Replace Wood with Simmons on last year’s team. Do we really win a bunch more games?

 

Lebron’s team won 35 games his rookie season…his impact took his team from 17 wins and #1 overall pick to barely missing the playoffs by 1 game

C-Wood’s impact is 20 and 10 as his team has gone 13-40

We would’ve been better. How much better? Idk, but my point is that many on here think Simmons would’ve taken us from atrocious to mediocre. I haven’t seen anyone on here say that C-Wood and his 20 and 10 might make us win too much.

 

I’m not really an Olynyk fan. He’s a bench big on a playoff team to me. I said in the offseason I’d be ok with a 1 year overpay for Kelly or something like a 2/20 deal, and if he’s not brought back I’d be cool with that too.

I mainly just don’t want to be giving C-Wood a big deal, so if it’s C-Wood on a max or near max or him getting traded for assets, I’m in favor of trading him.

 

Well, let me start this by saying Ive been watching soccer since I was born (Im from Brazil thats why haha). The way I see it, there are some super talented players who I feel are positionless, but not in a good way like the word is used in basketball.

For example: a guy can be a very good passer, but if he cant finish or move off the ball, he cant be an offensive midfielder. If he cant defend, he cant be a defensive midfielder. So he ends up being kind of useless even though he’s clearly a talented player.

Despite being a different sport, I think that’s what ends up happening with Cristian Wood. He can’t defend like a 5 and can’t play like a 4 on the offensive side.

I could see him thrive if paired with the right player. A defensive 5 who can stretch the floor on offense and doesn’t clog the paint, a la Brook Lopez (he isnt even the perfect fit cause defense would be a problem). But the fit is going to be hard to find and will require godly coaching. Is it worth to be hostage of such roster building troubles? Isn’t it better to trade him by the deadline while we can extract some nasty value out of him?

 

It is too soon to tell what CW is capable of. The sample size is too small and we don’t really have a clear idea of our rotations and who plays well with each other. Roles on this team are going to be very fluid for most of the year. It is basically a whole new roster with 4 rookies and a couple of second year players that need a lot of coaching. We wait until we know if Wood is a fit. If he is not then trade him. I don’t know if that is at the trade deadline or the off-season or next year. No need to panic and get rid of someone because he doesn’t look like he fits after 2 preseason games. He fit just fine last year. I would only trade him now if someone just really knocked your socks off. We have enough frp’s for now.

 

While I agree we shouldn’t judge him after 2 preseason games, he was “just fine” last year because he mostly played the 5. And we all know we will suck defensively as long as he plays the 5 (unless he puts up real weight).

So the question is, can he “be fine” playing the 4? We’ve all watched him enough to know his bread and butter is the pick and roll and being a threat around the rim. If he doesn’t drastically change his playstyle to fit alongside Theis/Sengun or any kind of 5, how good can he be for us?

I’m not saying he CANT be a better all around player or fit with the team, I just think we should be at least thinking about trading him this year before his value decreases, be it for contract reasons, possible poor play or even injuries.

 

You hold onto Wood and wait to trade him next year. Right now you trade Gordon and House and give all the young guys tons of minutes to see what you have, drive up the trade value, and lose a lot of games.

Some star is going to demand out. Let’s say it’s Zion. You have KPJ, Green and you draft Holmgren this draft. Wall comes off the books. Package Wood and some mix of Tate/JC/KMJ/Garuba for Zion. Then you sign a max FA too in my scenario it’s Jokic.

KPJ
Green
Holmgren
Zion
Jokic

Easy peasy