Christian Wood adds a dose of athleticism to the Dallas Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks recently swung a trade that sent Marquese Chriss, Sterling Brown, Trey Burke, Boban Marjanovic, and their first round pick in the 2022 NBA Draft to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Christian Wood. Our own Josh Bowe broke down the trade in depth, which you can read here.

After that, watch our guy Panda Hank’s highlight video of Wood’s time in Houston (and subscribe to Hank’s channel, of course). Here it is:

It doesn’t take long watching the video to see that Wood is going to add some much needed athleticism to the Mavericks’ big man rotation. Wood has the size, skill, and explosiveness Dallas has been missing in the front court for years. There will be concerns on defense, as Wood can be pushed around in the post and can get caught sleeping pretty frequently.

But what he adds on offense should offset those deficiencies until Wood can get coached up on defense. In addition, Wood should offer more rebounding than what the Mavericks had last season. That will be a huge improvement, as Dallas struggled on the glass often last year.

There will be ups and downs with Wood, but with the highlights you’ll see in Hank’s video, the Mavericks had to take a chance on him, especially with the low cost of acquiring him. Now we just have to wait until the season starts to see Wood in action.