Why Christian Wood Was Signed So Late in the Offseason

Image Credit: Emil T. Lippe/ Associated Press

Christian Wood is coming off of a season in which he averaged nearly 17 points per game as well as seven rebounds. These numbers on paper seem really solid, especially due to the fact that Wood played the majority of the season coming off the bench. The biggest issue with Wood is that even though he is an above average offensive player he is a liability on the defensive end. There were many games last season where Wood did not play down the stretch due to teams exploiting his struggles on the defensive end. This certainly was part of the reason the Mavericks had such a disappointing season last year and didn’t even make the play-in tournament. 

Once free agency hit, Wood was absolutely expecting to make more than a minimum contract. After the first two hours players like Jerami Grant were signing contracts for 5 years 160 million. Wood, however, did not receive the same love, and as the days went by it became clear that teams were too worried to sign Wood due to his defensive issues. The Lakers were offering Wood the minimum for a while but Wood was holding out hope for a bigger contract that never came. Wood was hoping that either a James Harden or Damian Lillard trade would materialize and would open up a center slot for a different team. This never ended up transpiring and Wood signed a deal with the Lakers for the minimum.