Javale McGee & Christian Wood: Do They Fit Together for New Mavs?
The Dallas Mavericks announced today that they reached a three-year agreement with free agent Javale McGee. McGee, the 34-year-old center, stated that he signed with the Mavericks for an opportunity to start at the center position.
How does the signing of McGee affect the trade the Mavs pulled off for Christian Wood? Several are asking what this means for Wood and the role he was going to play.
One of the problems with the Mavericks philosophy is that they live and die by shooting the 3. When you have all of your players wanting to shoot from deep, you tend to have no one under the rim to rebound the ball. Rebounding was a huge issue for the Mavericks in each of their playoff series.
Wood has proven that he can stretch the floor, with a career average of 38 percent from 3. This gives the Mavs a potential second scoring option, while allowing McGee to try and get their shooters free via the pick-and-roll. It has been a long time since the Mavericks had a legitimate rim-running center, scoring in the paint and being able to block shots.
Both Wood and McGee provide another added benefit for the Mavericks. With Luka Doncic running the point, he is always looking to get his teammates involved. One of the ways that he does that is by looking for someone to finish an alley-oop pass at the rim. Both Wood and McGee will be viable options at the basket.
The Mavericks have, for sure, updated their presence in the paint. With time, and practice, they should find the right way to utilize all of their new editions.
