Casual NBA fans may not have known before this season who Christian Wood even was. He was withering away in Detroit, still putting up good numbers, showing good potential, but if you are on a bad team, it’s hard to get recognized in this league. Wood has been in the league since 2015, bouncing around from team to team, but last year in Detroit was the first time we got to see what Wood can do on a more consistent basis. On a disappointing Piston’s team, Wood averaged 13 points and 6 rebounds in about 20 minutes a game. People, like myself, were eyeing a player like Wood at the trade deadline to make a deeper playoff push. Nothing came to fruition, the Celtics didn’t make any trades, and Wood rotted away in Detroit, missing the playoffs entirely.
When the offseason came around, it was kind of assumed that the Pistons would do whatever they could to keep Wood on their roster after showing what he could do for them. Imagine everyone’s shock when Woj reported that Wood had signed a three-year deal with the Rockets. I was personally kind of excited about it. I had heard about the Westbrook/Harden drama, and I knew that a trade was about to happen, but this seemed like the Rockets planning for the explosion. Westbrook got traded for John Wall, the Rockets signed DeMarcus Cousins, and James Harden wasn’t showing up for training camp. Not a great start for Wood’s Rockets career.
Wood, apparently, did not care one bit who was on the floor or not, because this man is putting on a show basically every night. The lowest scoring performance he’s had this season was 20, and he’s averaging basically 24 points and 10 rebounds per game this year. Any team would be glad to have that kind of production on their team, let alone on a contract that seems favorable. So what went wrong? Why didn’t the Pistons pull the trigger on re-signing Wood?
What isn’t to like about a player like Wood? He scores well, he rebounds well, he stretches the floor, this season he’s averaging a block and a steal per game, I mean this guy can do it all. So why, Detroit? Why didn’t you go for broke with Wood?
The Pistons decided to forgo the resigning of Christian Wood and instead signed the following big men (forwards and centers.) Mason Plumlee, Jerami Grant, and Jahlil Okafor, on top of having Blake Griffin. Talk about a log jam down low. The Pistons could have Blake Griffin run point, and still have enough players to have a full big man rotation. Now I’m just speculating here, but I can only imagine that the Pistons have some bigger plan for all of this than just being mediocre. Maybe it’s a cap play, it seems like they’re making room to land two max salary players for the 2022-2023 season, after Blake Griffin’s contract is over. Maybe the Pistons are just biding their time. I can only hope they have a plan, because if not, the NBA really needs to consider not letting Detroit have a team anymore. It would be best for everyone involved if all of the teams tried every few years to be good, and the last time I checked, the last time the Pistons were even relevant was when they won a title back in 2004.
Christian Wood is having himself a career year in Houston while the Pistons are toiling in mediocrity. On the surface, it seems easy who made the right and wrong choices, but in a few years maybe I’ll be telling a different story. Basketball, like most things, is a wait and see game.
Round The Game 
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