Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd reportedly never wanted Christian Wood on the team in the 2022-23 season.
Dallas moved a first-round pick in a deal with the Houston Rockets prior to the 2022-23 season to acquire Wood, who ended up playing mainly a bench role for Dallas.
“Straight up, Jason Kidd did not want Christian Wood,” ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said. “That trade was made without J-Kidd signing off on it.”
Wood recently agreed to a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, with the second season of that deal being a player option. He was an unrestricted free agent this offseason, but the Lakers were able to sign him for the veteran minimum.
Wood has proven that he can score the ball at a high rate in recent seasons, averaging 16.6 points per game for the Mavericks in the 2022-23 campaign. Prior to that, Wood averaged 17.9 points per game for Houston in the 2021-22 season and 21.0 points per game in 41 contests in the 2020-21 campaign (also for the Rockets).
The Lakers are hoping that he will buy into their culture to help the team compete for an NBA title in the 2023-24 season.
Wood has bounced around in his NBA career, and it doesn’t appear many other teams were willing to take shots on him with bigger contracts this offseason, which is why the Lakers were able to bring him in on a minimum deal.
During his NBA career, Wood has played for the Mavericks, Rockets, Detroit Pistons, New Orleans Pelicans, Milwaukee Bucks, Charlotte Hornets and Philadelphia 76ers.
Wood started just 17 of the 67 games he played in for the Mavericks last season, and the team ended up missing the playoffs. Dallas had the star power of Luka Doncic and eventually Kyrie Irving last season, but it wasn’t enough in the Western Conference.
Kidd may not have liked the fit of Wood on the Dallas roster, but the Lakers don’t need to play Wood as much since they have a solid frontcourt with Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura, Jaxson Hayes and Jarred Vanderbilt.
It will be interesting to see what Wood’s role ends up being in the 2023-24 campaign.
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