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Thursday 16 June 2022 11:46, UK
The Dallas Mavericks are acquiring center Christian Wood, the Houston Rockets' leading scorer and rebounder this past season, via trade in exchange for four players and a draft pick.
Boban Marjanovic, Trey Burke, Sterling Brown and Marquese Chriss – who are all on expiring contracts – are heading to the Rockets, who will also receive the No 26 pick this year. It's understood the trade will not be finalised until the June 23 draft.
It fills a major need for the Mavs, who were eager to enhance their talent at the center position and there is no doubt Wood is an improvement on usual starting center Dwight Powell – while the Rockets were happy to free up a roster space to create more minutes for talented Turkish prospect Alperen Sengun.
This is a big move for the Mavericks, after Wood averaged 17.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. He was one of nine players to average at least 17 points and 10 rebounds, joining Philadelphia's Joel Embiid, Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo, two-time MVP Nikola Jokic of Denver, Miami's Bam Adebayo, Sacramento's Domantas Sabonis, New Orleans' Jonas Valanciunas, Chicago's Nikola Vucevic and Phoenix's Deandre Ayton.
Wood is entering the final season of a three-year, $41 million contract. He revealed to reporters in Houston last week that he had preliminary talks with the Rockets on an extension, though it isn't known if one side balked or if it simply became clear that he wasn't going to be in the team's long-term plans.
Either way, now Dallas star Luka Doncic gets another talented option to surround himself with next season. Wood has become a much better 3-point shooter as his career goes along; his 131 makes from beyond the arc this season matched his total from the previous two seasons combined.
Houston also currently has two other first-round picks in the draft – including No 3, with the most likely selection in that spot being Auburn's Jabari Smith, Gonzaga's Chet Holmgren or Duke's Paolo Banchero. Orlando picks No 1, followed by Oklahoma City at No 2, and there has been much speculation that Banchero would fall to the Rockets.
The Rockets also have the No 17 selection, acquiring that from Brooklyn as part of the James Harden trade in January 2021.
Wood averaged 50 per cent shooting this season, including 39 per cent from 3-point range. Dallas will be the 26-year-old's seventh team in seven NBA seasons, after stints in Philadelphia, Charlotte, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Detroit and Houston.
His breakout started in an eight-game stint with the Pelicans in 2018-19, averaging 16.9 points. He averaged 21.0 points with the Rockets last season, his first as a full-time starter, and appeared in a career-most 68 games with Houston this season.
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