Being aggressive
Lastly, and this is more of a general thing that I’ve seen from Wood in summer league, is aggression. Wood has been fighting hard for a roster spot since he came into the league, and often he played like he didn’t want to be on a team. Finally, in this year’s summer league, we’re seeing him take matters into his own hands and play as if he wants to be on a team.
The result is a powerful, hungry, and hard-to-contain big man in Christian Wood. He’s going after loose balls, being tenacious, and taking moves at the basket on offense that he wouldn’t have taken last season.
He was oddly standing in the corner on one possesion, where he would be minimally effective on offense, when a coach yelled, “Come on Chrsitan!” That extra motivation prompted Wood to slide over to the post, put his back to his defender and size them up, and call for the ball.
Wood then got the ball, faced up with his defender, dribbled between his legs while keeping the ball safe like it was no big deal, and went up strong (and with agression). He missed the shot, but drew a foul, which in some cases is just as good.
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As long as Wood can keep things like that going when he’s in the league, it should be no problem for him to find work. That being said, he has shown work ethic issues in the past, and does need to show that all of those issues are truly behind him.