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Why Not Keep Christian Wood On The Roster?

By Josh Wilson

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Christian Wood has had a tough few months, and has gone through a lot of learning in those months. The forward that had success at UNLV was expected to be drafted at some point in the first or second round, but drastically, his name was never called, not even through the very end of the draft. Some point to his body fat increase being an issue, and others say that it was a behavioral issue. Whichever it was, it clearly pulled at Wood, as he was in tears following hearing the last name called in the draft, and hearing that it wasn’t his.

The good news for Wood is that this league thrives off of un-drafted players, as long as they are willing to put the work in, and it looks like Wood is. There’s definitely no guarantee for him to make it onto an NBA team this year as an un-drafted rookie, but he’s got a shot.

With that non-guarantee comes a necessity to work hard. Very hard. Wood has to play with a chip on his shoulder, and talking to Keith Pompey of Philly.com, he has said that’s exactly what he’s going to do. In Monday night’s game against the Knicks, we finally saw that chip on his shoulder impact his gameplay.

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History outlines a bleak future for Christian Wood on the Lakers
History outlines a bleak future for Christian Wood on the Lakers /

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    • Despite it being the preseason, Wood has not played very much. His stats haven’t been able to have been broken down very much because of this, but in game two of the preseason, he only played for four minutes, but was able to score five points, and give the Sixers a +11 while he was on the floor. In fact, all throughout the preseason, while he was on the floor, he has given the Sixers a +/- of +12.

    With Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor out on Monday due to back and knee soreness, Wood got a chance to have more minutes and prove his worth to the team even more. Playing 20 minutes, he scored 13 points, had 10 rebounds, and shot 50% from the field.

    He is playing like his job is on the line, and truly, it is. It’s great to see this though, as having depth at the forward positions would be a great thing for the Sixers. Wood off of the bench to pick up where Noel leaves off could be fantastic.

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    He does have some competition, though, if he wants to be the second in line for the power forward position. Richaun Holmes was drafted by the Sixers, and Furkan Aldemir is also lobbying to get an increase in playing time this season. Since the Sixers don’t have any true centers besides Okafor, though, Furk or Holmes could be seen taking over there when Okafor needs a break, opening up some playing time for Wood behind Noel.

    It’s not too far out to expect Wood to make the roster. Since we can expect the Sixers to take around three players at each position, we can expect there to be five or six front court positions up for grabs. Noel and Okafor take up two of those spots. Injured Joel Embiid takes up a third one. I think we could either expect all three (Furk, Wood, and Holmes) or two of the three to end up making the team. Wood may have to fight hard all preseason to make his case strong enough to make the team.

    At this point, it’s more of a “why not?” type of move. He could bring in some good plays to the offense, and grab some boards throughout the regular season. He also only takes up $50,000 if he is not still on the team by January, so he is a relatively low risk to give a trial run to. Why not keep Wood on the team, as he can grow into a great player as he fights to show the NBA they were wrong about him?

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