After seeing how nuclear Kevin Porter Jr and Jalen Green have gone with Wood out of the lineup, would you be ok with keeping him if his role was adjusted? Do you think he would even be willing to take a step back in the offense after being the number 1 option the past two seasons? Might be hard for a guy like that to suddenly defer to younger guys that he saw himself as being superior to. He said himself he wants to be viewed as an all star player. Thoughts on the Tweet below?
No. Wood has too much of an ego + kpj currently lacks the playmaking ability to utilize him like how the tweet wants him to play.
If it's 2k and we can control how he plays sure. But this hypothetical is probably not realized because either/both Silas and Wood don't want it. If there was a year of trying stuff and not worry about losses it's this year. The fact they didn't do it (as frequent) is not because they didn't think of it. Am sure they thought of it, but they chose not to. Maybe saw some data and decided against it. Here I'm referring to the play style. But as far as things like ego, minutes and shots, I also think unlikely. Wood is a one sided offensive big. You don't start him because of the defense. And if you don't use him as much on offense, then what's the point. This also goes back to KPJ as pg and Silas' five out system. If there was a test this year it's supposed to know the pick and roll verdict between him and Wood. What is the final answer? I have no idea... Is it a thing still or have we abandoned it. It looks like the latter. The synergy and compliment is not there. Rocket staff needs to take a hard look in the mirror and close at least one of these two 'experiments'.
Wood is nothing more than a trade asset. He should have been moved at the last draft, or last offseason, or last trade deadline, while he had great value. His value had declined quickly over the course of the year, as, rightly or wrongly, he has been pegged a selfish. He had public destructive actions on the court from the losing or whatever the reason, which is exactly why you dont want guys on your team that dont fit your timeline. The reality is we cant control his presence on this team beyond next year, so we have to assume he is leaving. The focus needs to be on what this team looks like as a finished product in 2025, and I see no scenarios where Wood is a part of that. Not trading him is / was a monumental mismanagement of a great trade asset. So to answer your question, no I dont envision him in any roles alongside our core guys. He was clearly impeding thier on court development.
After a spectacular 2nd half of season for Jalen Green and KPJ, whereby Green has scored +30 in 5 of last 6 games .... Wood is still leading scorer on this Rockets team. Wood is the only player on team that averages double double. If Silas would simply assign specific roles to each player instead his system ENCOURAGES all players to be multi-tool and do everything, Wood as well as Tate/KJ/Nwaba and even Theis would have been much more efficient more successful team players. Wood does too many things on offense and lacks IQ and urgency on defense. Even Tate and EGo have regressed on defense since last season. But you can say same for 90% of players on Rockets roster. It's on the system just as much on the individual players. Coaching matters.
I wanted him traded at last years deadline and absolutely thought he needed to be moved before the season. This past trade deadline was the final reasonable time to move him (as by now teams realize he’s not good). If he’s here NEXT season, jeezes christ
Maybe wait and see, team will have a different configuration in frontcourt. And hopefully better defined roles.
Better defensive system and better complementary plays should make a difference next season. Not seeing him going anywhere in any case.
I find myself agreeing with you a lot this morning Wood (21/22): 3-pt shooting: Left Corner: 50% (3P%)....81.8% (FGM %Ast'd) Right Corner: 42.1% (3P%)...100% (FGM %Ast'd) ATB: 38.1% (3P%)....83.9% (FGM %Ast'd) [ so if Wood is doing step back 3's....it's not hurting his season 3-pt % much ] If I'm Porter/Green/Sengun/Chet/Jabari/Ivey or Banchero I would want Wood on the perimeter to help open things up. Just a matter of roles defined after removing us from "Tank Mode" If Wood doesn't play nice and conform then Chet/Jabari or Banchero get the minutes and Wood gets shipped out. It's promising that Wood said he wanted to remain in Houston prior to trade deadline. Everyone needs to be unselfish next season......and everyone will prosper. *stats by basketball-reference.com and NBA.com
People pointing to Wood being out of the lineup which has boosted our guards stats.. and while that may be true to an extent it's much more due to Eric Gordon missing in my opinion. In my mind there's no pressure now to trade Wood until he demands a max or whatever might happen. Right now I'm not ready to start Sengun and a 3-man rotation of Chet/Jabari + Wood + Sengun is plenty of minutes to go around and they all can co-exist. It gets iffy if we draft Banchero. That might bring onus to trade Wood for a more traditional 5.
So Wood posts a pic of him waiving a half hearted goodbye to fans, a day after posting a heart broken emoticon. Yesterday night Green posts on insta a black heart emoticon and fingers crossed with a picture of heem and Wood. Rockets twitter speculating Wood is gone.
Wood is still only 26. However, the problem is that he's never shown the ability to be a true center for long stretches. The ideal situation for him would be playing with another forward/center that can truly man the paint. Maybe the answer is a large short term contract. Our cap won't be a problem in the next 3 years and 'Christian wood type' is likely who we would be targeting in free agency. We won't be getting any stars to come here until we are contenders or that one piece away from being contenders.
Wood would have to be willing to adapt and we’d have to have a coach that puts him in his place. Wood isn’t that guy and neither is Silas.
Him refusing to set picks and forcing his smaller teammates to guard opposing bigs is more of a wood problem than coach silas. Even if it was the coach's strat to let smaller guards defend the big men to hide woods weakness. Do we really want to pay a big man max contract to do that sort of strat?
That’s very dispiriting to hear so obviously i hope you’re wrong and he’s gone. What would you be willing to pay him? If he was willing to take something like 3/45 i could see him being useful as a 20ish minute bench guy, but that’s about it.
