Tag: Christian Wood

Rockets GM Rafael Stone lauds ‘unique’ skills of Christian Wood

“He’s just a very talented basketball player that can do things at his size that very few people can,” Stone told the Houston Chronicle.

At 6-foot-10 and 223 pounds, new Houston center Christian Wood is tall and agile enough to finish well near the basket, especially in the pick-and-roll game as a potential roll man for superstar guard James Harden.

Yet, having shot 38.6% from 3-point range last season, he should be effective for Harden and the Rockets in “pick and pop” scenarios, too.

That combination of size, athleticism, and skill makes Wood very unique, per new Rockets GM Rafael Stone. Wood is Stone’s first major acquisition since taking Houston’s lead basketball operations job in late October.

Here’s what Stone told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle about his new center, shortly after the acquisition was made official:

His skills, his talent — I think he’s just a very talented basketball player that can do things at his size that very few people can. He can stretch [defenses]. He can attack off the dribble. He can make a play for others. And he can finish at the rim. That’s a unique combo. …

He can pop and he can pick-and-roll. That’s what makes him unique. Very few guys can do that.

In Tuesday evening’s official announcement, which included a highlight video, here’s how the Rockets described the Wood acquisition:

Wood was eligible for the 2015 NBA Draft following his sophomore season at UNLV.  The 25-year-old finished eighth in voting for the Most Improved Player award in 2019-20 while averaging 13.1 points and 6.3 rebounds in 62 games for Detroit.

Over his final 22 games played last season, Wood averaged 19.7 ppg and 8.1 rpg while shooting 56.0% from the floor, 40.3% from 3-point range, and 77.4% from the foul line.  For the season, he joined Enes Kanter (2016-17) as the only players in league history to have averaged at least 13.0 ppg and 6.0 rpg in fewer than 22.0 mpg in a single season.

Training camp for the 2020-21 NBA season begins next Tuesday, Dec. 1, at Toyota Center in downtown Houston. The integration of Wood, who is expected to be the Rockets’ starting center, will be a key storyline.

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Rockets announce exit of Robert Covington, arrival of Christian Wood

The Houston Rockets were finally able to finalize their primary transactions from last week, and they sent out two videos for the occasion.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Houston Rockets finally made all of the transactions official from last week’s wave of trade agreements.

As a refresher, the Rockets agreed to trade Robert Covington to Portland last Monday for Trevor Ariza and first-round picks in 2020 and 2021. However, because teams can’t be without a first-round selection in consecutive years, the deal had to wait until after Portland made the “official” choice at No. 16 overall in last Wednesday’s NBA draft.

Covington averaged 11.6 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks in 33.0 minutes per game with the Rockets last season, and the 6-foot-8 forward was among the team’s best and most versatile defenders.

Then, on Wednesday, the Rockets traded that No. 16 pick and Ariza to Detroit for a protected first-round draft choice in 2021. However, that deal couldn’t be made official until after the first trade, since it involved two of the assets that Houston would be receiving from Portland.

Finally, on Friday, the Rockets agreed to sign free agent center Christian Wood, who happened to play for the Pistons last season. Because Detroit had his “early Bird” contract rights, Wood could get more money by working through the Pistons than simply by signing with the Rockets, who were and are above the league’s salary cap. So the original Ariza trade was expanded to include Wood, who was signed-and-traded to Houston.

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Here’s how the team described Wood’s statistical production:

Wood (6-10, 223) was eligible for the 2015 NBA Draft following his sophomore season at UNLV.  The 25-year-old finished eighth in voting for the Most Improved Player award in 2019-20 while averaging 13.1 points and 6.3 rebounds in 62 games for Detroit.

Over his final 22 games played last season, Wood averaged 19.7 ppg and 8.1 rpg while shooting 56.0% from the floor, 40.3% from 3-point range, and 77.4% from the foul line.  For the season, he joined Enes Kanter (2016-17) as the only players in league history to have averaged at least 13.0 ppg and 6.0 rpg in fewer than 22.0 mpg in a single season.

Contracts involving 2020 free agents could not be made official until this Sunday. Furthermore, teams also typically put newcomers through a physical examination before finalizing their offseason signings. As a result, it took until Tuesday for the entire chain to be completed.

In effect, the Rockets are sending out Covington and have acquired Wood and two protected future first-round draft choices from Detroit and Portland. Here’s what we currently know of the protection terms:

To commemorate Tuesday’s “official” occasion, the Rockets sent out two videos on their official social media channels to thank Covington for his time in Houston and welcome Wood into the fold. Highlight packages of both players can be seen in those embedded video posts.

Training camps for the 2020-21 NBA season open next Tuesday, Dec. 1. Covington will be in Portland, and Wood in Houston. Ariza has since been moved by the Pistons in a separate trade (the third deal involving Ariza in under a week) to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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Report: James Harden, Christian Wood played together in offseason

“He and Wood played together in Los Angeles pickup games this offseason,” the Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen says of James Harden.

Among the leading questions after the three-year agreement between the Houston Rockets and free agent center Christian Wood are these:

Is that deal enough to satisfy superstar guard James Harden, who recently requested a trade to Brooklyn? And what kind of on-court chemistry might the 31-year-old Harden and his new big man have?

On Saturday night, longtime beat writer Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle offered some optimism: It appears that Harden and Wood have already played together in recent weeks during pickup games.

Feigen writes:

Though Wood’s rise from having to play his way onto the Pistons roster before the season to coveted free agent after made him a bit of a sudden sensation, Harden should know his game well. He and Wood played together in Los Angeles pickup games this offseason.

An athletic 6-foot-10 big man with a 7-foot-4 wingspan, Wood averaged 13.1 points (56.7% shooting, 38.6% on 3-pointers) and 6.3 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game in Detroit last season. He is only 25 years old, which gives Houston — one of the NBA’s oldest teams — both a short-term frontcourt upgrade and a key building block for years to come.

Perhaps the best part of all for Harden and the Rockets is that Wood might not be done improving. After the Pistons traded starting center Andre Drummond in early February, Wood took advantage of a larger role by averaging 22.3 points (56.2% FG, 41.0% on 3-pointers) and 9.5 rebounds in 34.1 minutes per game over the rest of Detroit’s season.

It remains to be seen if that production will hold over a full season, and whether it’s enough to reconvince Harden about the Rockets as his long-term NBA home. But with training camp for the 2020-21 season set to open on Dec. 1, his offseason experience with Wood certainly can’t hurt.

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Rockets agree to three-year, $41M deal with big man Christian Wood

Wood averaged 13.1 points (38.6% on 3-pointers) and 6.3 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game with the Pistons last season.

The Houston Rockets agreed to a three-year, $41-million contract on Friday with big man Christian Wood, formerly of the Detroit Pistons.

The development was first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who says the deal will be completed via a sign-and-trade with Detroit. The Rockets will have a trade exception of approximately that size from Wednesday’s trade with the Pistons involving Trevor Ariza. Another conceivable option could be folding Wood’s signing into that deal. Free agency acquisitions can’t be made official until Sunday.

For the 2020-21 season, Wood will slot into Houston’s frontcourt rotation in a spot formerly occupied by Robert Covington (prior to his trade on Monday). In effect, the Rockets appear to have swapped Covington for Wood and two future first-round picks from Detroit and Portland.

An athletic 6-foot-10 big man, Wood averaged 13.1 points (56.7% shooting, 38.6% on 3-pointers) and 6.3 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game with the Pistons last season. He is only 25 years old, which potentially gives Houston a key building block in the years ahead.

After Detroit traded starting center Andre Drummond in early February, Wood filled many of those minutes and averaged 22.3 points (56.2% FG, 41.0% on 3-pointers) and 9.5 rebounds in 34.1 minutes per game over the remaining 15 games of Detroit’s 2019-20 season.

Here’s how James Edwards of The Athletic, who covered Wood last season with the Pistons, summed up Wood’s game:

Offensively, Wood is everything you want in a modern big. He can shoot, create off the dribble, and runs the floor well. His biggest growth needs to come on defense.

Wood went undrafted in 2015 after playing in college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He played for the Rockets in the NBA’s 2015 Summer League before starting his career in Philadelphia.

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Watch: Klay Thompson buries transition 3-pointers in latest offseason workout

In his latest offseason workout, Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson was spotted hitting a transition 3-pointer off the dribble.

After sprinting past his brother in a workout earlier in the week, Klay Thompson was spotted getting more work in on Friday. During a pickup game, the five-time All-Star drilled a long-distance jumper while bringing the ball up the court in a fast break.

Co-founder and lead instructor at ICEOCA (Intelligence Concentration Effort Order) Charlie Max Torress shared a video on his Instagram Story of the Golden State Warriors shooting guard knocking down one of his signature transition 3-pointers.

Via @bucketsworth on Instagram:

Thompson was joined at ICEOCA by Milwaukee’s D.J. Wilson and Detroit’s Christian Wood for the workout.

The clip of Thompson working is another positive sign in his rehab from the injury he suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals. The sharpshooting guard recently made his long-awaited return to the practice floor at the Warriors offseason minicamp. The Warriors’ voluntary workouts in The Dubble were Thompson’s first chance to officially practice with his teammates on the court in 15 months.

With no official data for the start of preseason training camp, Thompson will have to wait to make his highly anticipated return to Steve Kerr’s starting lineup at Chase Center.

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Could Boston pursue Christian Wood if Hayward or Kanter opt out?

Could the Boston Celtics target forward Christian Wood if Enes Kanter or Gordon Hayward leave in free agency?

Could the Boston Celtics already have a backup plan in case either forward Gordon Hayward or center Enes Kanter opt out of the final year of their current deal?

It’s certainly possible they are looking into Detroit Pistons big man Christian Wood, a player The Athletic’s James L. Edwards III sources relate the Celtics inquired about multiple times at the 2020 NBA trade deadline in February.

Wood will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and the Pistons may hope to sign the power forward to a bargain deal in the hopes a depressed cap situation (even before considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the league) aids their efforts.

The Celtics, as Edwards notes, would almost certainly need one of Kanter or Hayward to opt out in order for any such pursuit to make sense, as they would almost certainly be an over-the-cap team only able to offer their taxpayer mid-level exception (MLE) otherwise.

Exactly how much that ends up being depends on far too many moving parts at present given the financial strain the pandemic will likely place on the league, but it would presumably be less than the $6.6 million estimate set when the cap was expected to be set at $115 million pre-pandemic.

The full MLE was projected in the neighborhood of $10.7 million, and — given Boston’s likely contention status in 2020-21 — might appeal more than a similar figure from Detroit.

While Wood is far from a finished product especially on defense, his high-volume 3-point shooting in particular could make for an excellent addition to the team’s bench scoring repertoire with starter potential.

In 2019-20, the Californian averaged 13.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and an assist per game while blocking 0.9 shots per game.

A lot of things would have to happen to actually see the UNLV product in green and white, but it’s an option to monitor should one of Kanter or Hayward decide to test the waters this coming offseason.

The path is slim, but the front office interest is legitimate, the fit solid and likely cost potentially in reach — the rest lies with Wood’s priorities, and luck.

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Pistons big man Christian Wood has made full recovery from COVID-19

Detroit Pistons big man Christian Wood has fully recovered from coronavirus.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has swept sports under the rug right now as everybody continues to self-quarantine themselves in an all-around effort to fight the virus. It has hit the NBA as there have been a handful of players who have tested positive for coronavirus and that includes a recent Philadelphia 76ers opponent.

Detroit Pistons big man Christian Wood faced off with the Sixers on March 11 on the final day of the season before the suspension and he was tested positive for it on March 14. That then caused the Sixers to get tested and three members within the organization tested positive.

There is some good news for Wood, however, as the big man has made a full recovery from coronavirus. The Detroit Free Press reported the news and said:

Wood, the only Detroit Pistons player known to have contracted the virus, is “feeling great and fully recovered,” according to his agent, Adam Pensack.

A source familiar with the situation said Wood has to pass a few medical tests and is expected to be cleared Thursday.

This is great news for Wood as he can now continue on with his life and hopefully, this means that the three Sixers members who tested positive will be able to recover in a similar way. [lawrence-related id=28229,28223,28213]

Sixers underwent testing for COVID-19 after news of Christian Wood

The Philadelphia 76ers had their players scheduled to be tested on Monday.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has the basketball world on hold as they try to figure out what the next step is for the future. Ther are seven confirmed cases of players in the NBA being tested for the virus after the news on Tuesday that four players on the Brooklyn Nets being tested positive for it.

One of those players was Detroit Pistons big man Christian Wood who faced the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday before commissioner Adam Silver suspended the season. Ths news of Wood’s positive test came out on Saturday and the Inquirer.com’s Keith Pompey is reporting that the players on the Sixers underwent tests on Monday to be sure they don’t have it.

The results of the testing have not been released yet if any Sixers have it, but it will be something to keep an eye on over the next few days. Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert was the first player to be tested positive and they faced the Pistons on March 7 in Detroit. [lawrence-related id=27760,27751,27728]

REPORT: Kevin Durant tests positive for coronavirus

Durant is one of four players were tested positive for the virus, although he is not showing any symptoms according to Shams Charania.

Current Brooklyn Nets star and former Oklahoma City Thunder forward, Kevin Durant, has tested positive for the coronavirus according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.

The news of Durant’s diagnosis comes just about an hour after the Nets revealed via press release that four players had tested positive for the virus.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Brooklyn made the decision to “test the team upon returning from San Francisco and results came back today. Nets paid out of pocket to a private company to conduct tests. One player awoke with some aches today; rest have experienced no symptoms.”

Per Charania, Durant is one of the three players who has not experienced symptoms. KD told Charania that “he is feeling fine” and that his message to everyone is to “be careful, take care of yourself and quarantine. We’re going to get through this.”

There has been no additional word about who the other three Nets players diagnosed with the virus are or who among them is the one experiencing symptoms.

With Durant and his teammates’ diagnoses, the number of players in the NBA who have tested positive for the coronavirus has risen to seven.

Previously diagnosed were Utah’s Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, along with Detroit Pistons forward, Christian Wood.

Gobert was the first player in the league to test positive for the coronavirus on March 11, his results coming back just prior to tip-off between the Utah Jazz and the Thunder.

The game was immediately canceled, with Adam Silver announcing that the NBA would go on a 30-day hiatus the following day.

Pistons star big man Christian Wood tests positive for COVID-19

Detroit Pistons big man Christian Wood has tested positive for COVID-19.

After two players for the Utah Jazz tested positive for COVID-19, or coronavirus, which ultimately led to the NBA season being suspended for 30 days, another player has now tested positive for it.

That would be Detroit Pistons big man Christian Wood who is enjoying a breakout season and has taken over the starting big man spot with the Pistons trading Andre Drummond. He is averaging 22.8 points and 9.9 rebounds in the 11 games since Drummond was moved to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

He did just score a career-high 32 points against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday in the final game before the league suspension. Wood and the Pistons did face the Jazz on March 7 before their matchup with Philadelphia on Wednesday.

This does not mean that any Sixers players have coronavirus, but it does raise some alarms as the two teams did just meet. Philadelphia has currently ordered their entire team to be in self-quarantine as they continue to try and figure things out for the future. [lawrence-related id=27627,27621,27612]