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Christian Wood Will Make The Sixers Final Roster

By Josh Wilson

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It’s that time of year for the Philadelphia 76ers, cut season. The roster must be cut from 20 players down to 15. For some teams, it’s a pretty easy task, but for teams like the Sixers, it’s a bit more complicated.

The Sixers carry a lot of young players that have not yet been seen in the NBA in real game situations, so it’s tough to determine which are beneficial to keep, and which would be better off getting dumped off of the squad, left to find work elsewhere. A lot of the time “upside” comes into the equation when deciding who makes the team and who doesn’t. While this isn’t the most effective method in determining player worth–it’s pretty much all hypothetical, a player can demonstrate their upside, or they could not–it’s essentially all the team has on top of their college skill sets.

One player looking to make the roster, or any roster for that matter, is UNLV big man Christian Wood. Wood put on a lot of fat before the draft this year and had some behavioral issues, leaving this “first round talent” to go un-drafted, and be completely devastated about this. His world was turned upside down, and his dream of becoming an NBA player saw a possible huge road block.

Wood worked with a chip on his shoulder, and found himself a member of the Sixers heading into training camp. Most paying attention were definitely skeptical, wondering if he could get back to having the potential he was expected to have before the draft, and wanted him to prove himself. The Sixers don’t have that many options, but there’s no room for a guy that’s lazy on the team.

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Wood has shown that he isn’t that guy, and is trying to prove every single team that passed on him in the draft. He’s playing with a huge chip on his shoulder, and it’s working great.

In Wood’s first three games, he was given quite inconsistent playing time, but only averaging just about 9.5 minutes per game. With this, he averaged 4.3 points per game, and 2.3 rebounds. Not that exciting, but in his fourth game against the Knicks, he really exploded, given 20 minutes to play with, and scoring 13 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, achieving a double-double.

This was where we first saw a great sample size of Wood, and since then he has been day-to-day with a knee injury (just adding to the long list of Sixers injuries). For some, this injury would be enough to say no to Wood, but to others, the “upside” is enough to keep him around on the final roster and see how he can help.

To me, keeping Wood around is one of the moves that isn’t necessary to be made, but I would really like it to be made. There’s not much reason not to. With other front court members not named Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor, there’s been struggles. Furkan Aldemir has only averaged 5.8 points per game and 6.8 rebounds in 18.6 minutes. Carl Landry has age (although his statistics have been more impressive than some would have expected this preseason, 11.4 points in 23.8 minutes), and Richaun Holmes (Sixers’ second round pick) is only averaging 4.6 points per game in the preseason.

It’s clear some depth is going to be needed at the front court. It’s not clear how things will work with Nerlens transitioning to power forward, but at some point both Jah and Nerlz will need to sit, so they will need someone to back up that is able to score. Wood looks like a decent option at this point.

At this point, Wood deserves a spot on the final roster. No one else has demonstrated that they can be a reliable front court option for the Sixers, and Wood has shown that he’s motivated enough to come in, score, drive to the hoop, and get huge dunks.

Keep doubting Wood, because it’s only fuel on the fire for him.

Next: 76ers Have Young Pieces On The Move

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