Christian Wood’s Lessened Role Makes Little Sense For Mavericks

By trading for Kyrie Irving at the NBA trade deadline in February, the Dallas Mavericks sent a message to the rest of the league that they’re ready to compete for the title this season. After all, Irving’s contract is expiring this summer, so it’s now or never.

That message has been tempered recently, however, as the coaching staff has made a decision that suggests the organization isn’t all that committed to winning immediately.

During the month of February, Christian Wood, the team’s third-best player, averaged just 19 minutes of playing time per game. In the two March games he’s played so far, that number has gone down to 17.8 minutes.

One would be inclined to think that any player seeing a severe dip in playing time isn’t playing a productive brand of basketball, but that isn’t the case with Wood.

In February, the 6’10 forward averaged 13.7 points, and 5.8 rebounds in those limited minutes. In March, he’s averaging 13.5 points, getting eerily close to a point-per-minute production.

Not using a player of that talent and production is questionable at best, and negligent at worst. It also isn’t helping endearing Wood to the Dallas franchise as he – like Irving – is an unrestricted free agent this summer. If head coach Jason Kidd and the coaching staff continues giving him inconsistent minutes, there’d be little reason for Wood to stick around.

The larger issue here, of course, is what exactly Dallas wants to do, and whether they can manage to properly compete for the title while not playing one of their top players. Furthermore, it’s a curious sign to send to both Irving and Luka Dončić, the two stars spearheading the team’s goals of advancing deep into the postseason.

Irving could label the Mavericks as being unserious about winning, and leave outright. If so, the Mavericks would be in severe risk of Dončić developing a wandering eye. Losing both Irving and Wood, right on the heels of trading away Dorian Finney-Smith, one of Dončić’s best friends on the team, would leave the Mavericks vulnerable to a possible trade demand from their Slovenian superstar.

Getting back to the current season, it’s frankly difficult to dissect the possible reasons for Wood’s lack of minutes. Even if Kidd isn’t satisfied with his defensive capabilities, the Mavericks doesn’t exactly sport great depth up front.

Wood is competing with Dwight Powell, Maxi Kleber, and JaVale McGee for minutes, which isn’t exactly a trio of bigs that should win minutes over him. Wood is the lone big who can carry a high shot burden, just as he’s the most versatile offensive screen-partner for both Irving and Dončić due to his ability to both roll and pop.

Wood, it could be argued, is the best offensive big man Dončić has ever played with, making the decision to bench him for long stretches outright odd.

Whatever Dallas is hoping to achieve in the playoffs, forcing their third-best player, and best offensive big man, to the bench in a limited role isn’t going to work as an asset for them. The shot burden will fall too great on Irving and Dončić, and the remaining big men on the roster will struggle to generate efficient offense on their own.

Granted, you always have a shot in the playoffs if you have Dončić in the lineup, which should underline the absurdity of his talent and influence, but it makes little sense to stack the deck against him, when you needn’t do that.

Regardless of the issues, it’s time for Kidd and his coaches to realize the situation they’re putting in front of themselves, and how they’re only going to make their own jobs harder when games truly begin to matter.

Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook.