Detroit Pistons: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason
By Phil Watson
Adding Christian Wood
If this were baseball, Christian Wood would be best described as the classic Quadruple-A player. Wood has consistently dominated at the G League level, but has been squeezed out of the NBA by circumstances.
He got his first real opportunity to play big minutes at the end of last season with the New Orleans Pelicans, appearing in eight games and making his first two NBA starts.
He put up 16.9 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 23.6 minutes per game while shooting 53.3 percent overall and hitting 6-of-21 (28.6 percent) from 3-point range.
After cups of coffee with the Philadelphia 76ers, Charlotte Hornets and Milwaukee Bucks, it was the first time Wood got extended minutes at the NBA level and he looked solid — bearing in mind that it was empty minutes at the end of a long season for a team long-since dead in the playoff race.
It was Wood who was cut by the Bucks last March when Milwaukee needed backcourt help and wanted to add Tim Frazier and he wound up taking Frazier’s vacated roster spot in New Orleans.
After the Pelicans cut Wood in mid-July, the Detroit Pistons jumped in to claim his non-guaranteed $1.645 million contract.
He’ll get an opportunity to battle with Thon Maker for backup minutes at the 4 and 5, a battle he lost to Maker in Milwaukee last season before putting up ridiculous numbers for the G League’s Wisconsin Herd, where he averaged 29.3 points, 14.1 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 35.3 minutes per game.
Wood will be 24 in September, so he’s still got some time left to establish himself as an NBA rotation player … or more. But that clock is ticking and he will need to get it right in Detroit.
Still, it was a chance well worth taking for a guy who keeps showing himself to be way too good for the minors.