Mavs’ Christian Wood Ranked Among Top NBA Power Forwards
The Dallas Mavericks set out to make upgrades to their frontcourt after coming up short in the Western Conference Finals. The first of their moves was a trade with the Houston Rockets for Christian Wood for mostly salary filler and the No. 26 overall pick.
Wood experienced a breakout in his career after signing with the Rockets back in 2020. Over his previous two campaigns, he's averaged 19.1 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists while shooting 50.7 percent overall and 38.4 percent on 3-pointers.
Entering the 2022-23 season, it remains to be seen if Wood will actually end up starting for the Mavericks. JaVale McGee was reportedly promised the starting center role and it seems rather unlikely for Dallas to deploy multiple bigs.
HoopsHype released a ranking of the top 25 power forwards in the NBA ahead of the 2022-23 season. Christian Wood was classified as a power forward on this rankings list and slotted in at the No. 15 overall spot.
Wood is perceived as being a potential boost to the Mavericks' frontcourt shooting capabilities while adding new dimensions into the fold. He's a potent pick-and-roll big in addition to being capable of attacking off the bounce.
Clearly, Wood will provide the team’s big-man rotation with a solid boost from the outside shooting department while also giving them some pick-and-roll scoring and face-up bucket-getting chops.
There may not be a more complicated position to do a position-specific rankings list than power forward. Some teams go small with a wing, while others play two big men. They aren't necessarily filling the same roles despite playing the same position.
It gets all the more complicated when a big man slides over to the four but is more of a center. With Dorian Finney-Smith and Christian Wood on the roster, the Mavericks are a microcosm of this discrepancy. Finney-Smith was also classified as a power forward and ranked No. 25 overall.
One of the storylines from this rankings list that stands out for the Mavericks is that Kristaps Porzingis slotted in directly ahead of Wood. While Porzingis is more of a shot-blocking threat, Wood's shooting talent fills much of the void in the frontcourt.
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