Things Christian Wood Has Done Well in Summer League
By Josh Wilson
Christian Wood is fighting for a spot on any NBA roster, but for the Philadelphia 76ers, he’s demonstrated that he can do some things very well.
Christian Wood had a huge task in front of him this season as he entered summer league with the Philadelphia 76ers. That task was reminiscent of the same task that he was faced with just a year ago — find yourself a spot on an NBA roster.
Rewinding over a year, Christian Wood was expected to go in the late first-round of the 2015 NBA Draft. Wood was in New York, waiting for his name to be called on the night of the draft. But after some questions of work ethic, and some body fat measurements that didn’t reflect well on Wood’s stock, he fell, and he fell far.
The second round came along, and Wood was still on the board. The 10th pick came. Wood was not called. By the end of the night, Wood was left undrafted, and from there on out, he knew things were not going to be as easy as he anticipated them being.
He did very well after the Sixers signed him as an undrafted free agent, and probably would have been a large part of the Sixers offense had they not already had Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor. Because of little playing time, Wood was sent down to the D-League affiliate Delaware 87ers a few times, and waived by the Sixers more than once.
Later in the season, the Sixers signed him to a 10-day contract, and then another (two per season is the max for any team to any player) before signing him for the rest of the year.
As the Sixers move forward, there’s little room for Wood on the roster, and subsequently, he was picked up by another team, the Charlotte Hornets. Still, he’s been important to any Sixers summer success, and there’s a lot he could carry over to the Charlotte Hornets and the NBA in general from summer league this year.
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