Christian Wood on draft night

[Han Solo]

Saw this in the GB. Really makes me appreciate him even more. So glad we kept him on the team. He needs to play going forward.

Read on Twitter

?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E614400796654968832&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fftw.usatoday.com%2F2016%2F06%2Fchristian-wood-76ers-future

[Han Solo]

Read this -

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/06/christian-wood-76ers-future

[MotownMadness]

Gotta love it

[zeebneeb]

Having watched him play it's obvious he should get all of Makers minutes. If he doesn't, something is seriously wrong with Casey.

He can do everything on the court, and is good enough to start to be perfectly honest. I really like his game.

I am shocked he isn't locked up somewhere else as he is exactly what every single team in the league is looking for.

[rmfc]

Wood is such an intriguing talent.

So, what's the deal? Why was he let go by others despite having such clarity to his game?

[edmunder_prc]

There was talk from Casey before that Wood was very immature and had practice issues or off court stuff. Not the right mindset to be a pro.

So maybe Wood is working that out or his play is good enough to deal with whatever vague thing Casey was talking about.

[sludgefoot]

How about:
Drummond
Griff
Wood
Rose
Kennard

And Rose and Wood the first 2 subbed for.


Sent from my SM-A205U using RealGM mobile app

[edmunder_prc]

How about:
Drummond
Griff
Wood
Rose
Kennard

And Rose and Wood the first 2 subbed for.


Sent from my SM-A205U using RealGM mobile app

Would love to see bigger lineups.

Rose
Snell
Wood
Blake
Andre

Is another idea.

Maybe it doesn’t work but Wood might match up well to some larger SF and hes fast enough to keep up with some smaller ones.

Snell is plenty quick to guard most 2s.

[DCintheD]

Wood makes Drummond expendable! DONT PAY DRE

[csaw2112]

A lot of us would like to see Wood play more, even at the 3. Does anybody know if/how well he's done at that position in the past? I get that he isn't going to guard "Bruising Centers", but having him playing time at the 3 & 4 could give him 28-30 minutes a night and the Pistons the boost they seem to need. If it works and we're healthy, a closing unit of Rose, Kennard, Wood, Griffin & Drummond would be a lot of offense.

[hoophabit]

Wood needs to get stronger, although he has gained ground in that respect. Pretty sure he doesn't weigh 214 lbs anymore. He seems more natural as a big at 6'10," with a 7'3" wingspan. Long, athletic, good rebounding instincts and some natural scoring ability. Hard not to root for him, and he keeps proving his point.

[rebelx]

Here's the scoop...

Chris came to UNLV as one of the youngest players ever to step on campus. He was only 17 years old when he started his first semester. He was young and talented, but a very young, immature kid that was looking for validation and acceptance... but he showed flashes of what he could be. The next season, because Bryce Dejean-Jones and Khem Birch left early (Bryce to Iowa State...then the NBA & Khem to the NBA draft), Chris was thrust into a starting role... but to be fair, he earned it by almost single-handedly beating #3 Arizona... still, he had a little too much ego and didn't work as hard as you'd like. Because of the latter the coaches at the end of year spoke with him and told him they'd support whatever decision he wanted to make, but thought that he really needed another year in school.

I'm not sure if Chris really grappled with the decision (as he had claimed), but he honestly had coaches, fans, media, etc.. thinking he was leaning toward coming back. and every one of those entities felt like he needed at least one more year... he finally said, one day after the season had been over for like a month, that he'd make a decision the next day... the next day came and he dropped this video:

Watch on YouTube

Everybody was taken off guard, especially the coaches... people were pissed because he likely spent weeks producing a video, and was just leading everybody on... it really wasn't a positive deal around Vegas, who would've been supportive (as most were with Rashad Vaughn the same year) if he had made the decision and didn't lead people on and keep coaches in the dark. Stacey Augmon was on the staff, and had NBA ties so the word got out he was immature...

Then after buckling down after not getting drafted and making the Sixers roster as a FA... this happened...

https://thesixersense.com/2015/11/27/philadelphia-76ers-okafor-wood-incident-raises-questions/

...I've heard that Wood wasn't really involved, but word got out that maybe he wasn't a great influence on the young Okafor (even though they were both rookies and only 2 months apart in age)... and this hurt Wood's image even more.

I think going back and forth with the G league team, Wood felt he deserved more and had some attitude issues, plus didn't put in the work on D as much as O all the time... and it was a point of contention... still the Sixers called him back up for a few games at the end of the season and he played well.

After he got cut by the Sixers he really started to work hard (or at least harder) than ever before... he made the Hornets roster the next year, played down in the GLeague again... this is when he really began to develop more. Charlotte made him work in the post, and he put a lot of work into it. Despite his weight, he was good in the post, then became unstoppable in the post (still a part of his game that I wish he'd work on more)...

His attitude/immaturity was really put in check the next season... even though he showed a lot of promise/skill, nobody signed him, he signed in China, was only there for a day or two and came back to play for Elton Brand (the guy that the Sixers cut Wood for at the end of his rookie year) with the 86ers... Brand took him under his wing a bit & really was instrumental in getting his mind right...

Last year he was deserving of being in the NBA... no doubt... but the Bucks had, drumroll.... Thon Maker... a player they had to either develop or just try and give him time so they could move him. Still the Bucks surprisingly signed Wood... but later released him. New Orleans has to be kicking themselves that they let him go now that they have the injury bug...

I'm happy he's found a home... Chris's been through a lot, albeit some of it was self-inflicted, hes worked really hard to get the opportunity he has now... and even when he was causing issues, one thing you could never say was that he wasn't a good guy... he's never been a horrible person... just immature... and that's faded so much that I don't even see it anymore... Unfortunately labels stick and the NBA is a small circle that you don't want labels floating around in.

I'm wordy, I know... but that's the gist of it.

[tmorgan]

Great post, and thank you.

[Han Solo]

Bump

[pistonsbball]

Chip on shoulder.