Dallas Mavericks Aquire Christian Wood In Trade With Houston Rockets, Per Report

Amid the NBA Finals, the Dallas Mavericks are making one of the biggest trades of the offseason to date. Dallas is sending Boban Marjanovic, Sterling Brown, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss and the No. 26 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft to the Houston Rockets in exchange for center Christian Wood, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

The move is a massive undertaking for the Mavericks. Dallas only had one available roster spot to work with this offseason, which would have been filled by their first-round pick. Now, the organization will work with four open slots while adding a center that is on an expiring contract.

By unloading Marjanovic, Brown, Burke and Chirss, the Mavericks are freeing up $11.9 million in cap space. However, Wood will enter the 2022-23 season in the final year of his three-year, $41 million guaranteed contract that he signed with the Rockets in 2020. He will earn $14.3 million in the coming season.

After making a deep playoff run to the Western Conference Finals this season, where Dallas fell four games to one to the Golden State Warriors, it was clear that the Mavericks needed a man in the middle to help improve their rebounding and rim protection. Wood is apparently that player.

Yet, Wood had a lackluster season for Houston–albeit a tanking team. His numbers dropped almost across the board. He appeared in 67 games and averaged 17.9 points, 10.1 rebounds and shot 50.1% overall.

During the 2021-22 season, he averaged a career-best 21 points per game while shooting 51.4% overall on more shots. He took 15.6 field goal attempts that season compared with 12.9 this season, despite playing significantly more minutes.

Still, Wood should be an upgrade over Mavericks starting center Dwight Powell. Powell, who was once an elite roll-man in the NBA, wasn’t effective in Dallas’ most recent playoff run. Head coach Jason Kidd couldn’t play him extended minutes, limiting him to an average of 13.2 minutes per game.

Powell averaged 3.2 points and 2.6 rebounds in 18 playoff games for the Mavericks this season.

Dallas knew they needed to shore up the middle this offseason and they targeted Wood to do that. Given his expiring contract, it is a minimal risk bet that could pay dividends.