Christian Wood is on the move, but he won’t be leaving Texas.
The Houston Rockets big man reportedly is being traded to the Dallas Mavericks. In return, the Rockets will receive the No. 26 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, Boban Marjanovic, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss and Sterling Brown, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, reported, citing sources.
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The Mavs will be Wood’s seventh NBA team. Wood went undrafted in 2015 but got his professional career started with the Philadelphia 76ers that season. Since then, he has played for the Charlotte Hornets, Milwaukee Bucks, New Orleans Pelicans, Detroit Pistons and Rockets.
Wood was a double-digit scorer in his limited time with the Pelicans and Pistons, but he really started to shine one he got to Houston. He posted a career-high 21.0 points per game in his first season with the Rockets and averaged a double-double in 2021-22.
Now, Wood will be joining a team that just reached the Western Conference finals. The Mavericks earned the West’s No. 4 seed and beat the No. 5-seeded Utah Jazz and top-seeded Phoenix Suns to begin the playoffs. They ultimately fell to the Golden State Warriors in a five-game Western Conference finals series, but they appear eager to make another leap with the acquisition of Wood.
Houston, on the other hand, gets another first-round pick to go along with a handful of bench players it acquired in the deal. The team finished with a league-worst 20-62 record and earned the No. 3 pick in the 2022 draft lottery. Additionally, Houston has the Brooklyn Nets’ first-round pick this year (No. 17) as part of the blockbuster James Harden trade from January 2021.