Go watch the last 2 minutes of today's game. See how Tate secures a rebound and immediately passes to the outlet (and better FT shooter) in Mathews. Go back a possession or 2. Wood gets the rebound, instead of passing, he holds the ball and has it stripped (he rarely makes the quick outlet. Prefers to slow it up with a few S L O W dribbles first) Losers make losing plays.
not sure what we get but Cylus might get a million or 2 from his agent when he signs his new contract.....
Wood guarding the perimeter is exactly the issue. He's the tallest and bigger guy for the Rockets, and he rarely contests rebounds and also leaves big man assignments to the 6"3-6"5 players. There was an embarrassing sequence against the Jazz where Gobert had our guards pinned deep in the paint for what looked like 4-5 consecutive possessions, and Wood providing 0 help during that sequence.
He's probably the best offensive player available and he's not just a half season rental, you get another full season at the bargain price. I think a lottery protected #1 is the baseline for Wood .... but that can go up depending upon how many buyers and sellers there are. How many teams think they really have a shot at winning it all? How many think Wood can help put them over the top or maybe even keeping another team from landing him ...? If Stone can't extract a #1pick or a good young prospect from some team out there, I'll be disappointed.
Hopefully there will be an arms race at the deadline, our best hope for Wood is likely a pick in the 18-22 range plus salary match player (s). Unfortunately his actions refusing to check in likely lowered his value. It’s probably more likely a contender offers a pick in the 26-30 range imo. Hope your scenario is correct
a late first is still something. There really isn’t a future here for Wood; we need to be decisive and move on.
this isn’t wrong. It should just be added though that this is also a coaching issue. I think they actually are trying to have Wood do this a bit. Not at the end of games when it’s a free throw issue. But during games… they’re encouraging him to bring it up as part of their pace strategy. Problem is, it’s hard to remember a ton of amazing things happening from this - he’s not prime Russ grabbing boards and making it to the other end before anyone, he’s slow at dribbling it up and if he went faster he’d lose the ball. it wouldmy take more than a couple of practices to be like here’s why we’re practicing… rebound, guard makes himself quickly available, hit the guard immediately, push it up… to have it theoretically sink in and work in games. there’s lots of little things like this that it seems like they don’t practice. Boxing out for example. Or alternatively they do practice it and our players are just inept.
I agree that it appears to be part of the coaching strategy to push pace - grab rebound and run. Like you I wonder why a pass to the (more fleet of foot) guards isn't encouraged ASAP... But even with push pace as a strategy, surely common sense suggests the last minute you get the ball to someone who can shoot a FT!!
True, but Stone shouldn't trade him for a second round pick either. Ditto for EG. We need a expiring contract for EG.
Here's the other thing - That pick doesn't have to be in the coming draft. In fact, I'd prefer that any picks they obtain between now and the deadline are not in this years draft. They already have so many young players as it is and two more picks in this draft .... its almost overload. They need to push those picks out a year or two which essentially makes them complete unknowns other than the protection. Think about it , two draft picks joining this team in the offseason .... who's roster spots are they taking?
Rockets play SWITCHING defense, so he ends up on the guards. It's common but most bigs can not guard guards.
