Could Christian Wood Be Mavs' Next Jason Terry?

The Dallas Mavericks moved on from Kristaps Porzinigs ahead of the midseason trade deadline earlier this year. It didn't take long for them to take a chance on another dynamic offensive threat at the center position. Shortly after a run to the Western Conference Finals, the Mavs traded for Christian Wood from the Houston Rockets.

There is significant optimism about what Wood can accomplish as a member of the Mavs. The stakes are high for him personally as he's playing on an expiring contract with the chance to establish his value ahead of contract extension talks, or before free agency.

Wood took the next step in his career after joining the Houston Rockets in 2020 before James Harden ultimately opted to move on from the organization via trade request. During his two seasons performances with the Rockets, he averaged a combined 19.1 points and 9.9 rebounds while shooting 38.4 percent from deep.

Cuban envisions Wood as being either the top candidate for Sixth Man of the Year and compared what he could achieve to the impact that Jason Terry made in a similar role in the past. He's looked the part early in preseason as he's averaged 19.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in 22.4 minutes per game.

“I think (Wood is) the leading candidate for Sixth Man of the Year and that’ll get him paid,” Cuban said. “That gets him the visibility. That’s what you strive for. It worked for JET (Jason Terry) for a long time.

“And so having that role, because when Luka’s off the floor and it’s Spence and C-Wood, Timmie and/or Reggie, there’s going to be a lot of weapons out there that spread the court for (Wood) and he’s just going to have a heyday. It’s going to be easy pickings for him, especially when at the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second quarter when he’s playing against second unit guys, life’s going to be a lot easier. So, he’s going to eat a lot.”

By embracing a bench role, Terry added an incredible scoring punch for the Mavs that ultimately played an integral role in their 2011 NBA Finals run. He averaged 18.0 points and 3.2 assists in his six performance against the Miami Heat in the series — outscoring LeBron James by a small margin.

Coming off the bench doesn't have to mean a reduced workload either. When Terry won Sixth Man of the Year in 2008-09, he did so while averaging the most minutes (33.7) ever by a recipient of the honor. He averaged 19.6 points and 3.4 assists while taking an average of 15.8 field goal attempts and 6.2 3-pointers. 

Cuban is intrigued by the depth the Mavs have in the scoring department. He feels that if one of their top players was to be sidelined due to an injury, they have enough talented options like Wood to rely on to help make up the difference.

“There are so many weapons on so many different sides of the court, we’re going to be a hard team to stop,” Cuban said. “Like anything else, if somebody gets hurt, then everything changes.

“If your best player gets hurt on any team it’s a different world. But we’re going to be able to score and we’re going to be able to defend.”

Wood has made it clear that he's embracing his bench role with the Mavs during the season. He has been the clear No. 1 scoring option with the bench group to begin preseason action and has complemented Luka Doncic well when playing alongside him in plug-and-play lineups during games. 

“It’s not really worried about who starts the game, more so who’s finishing the game,” Wood said. “If people were asking, ‘How would he feel coming off the bench?’ I’m not worried. It’s something that most likely will happen in talks with extensions and talks with free agency, but during the season, it’s not going to get me off my pivot.”

Much of why Wood is coming off the bench has to do with the need to fine-tune his defensive impact. He has the physical tools to be an impactful defender, but has been subpar at best throughout his NBA career. If he can prove to be an impact defender, perhaps the situation could change.

"I want C-Wood to be himself," Kidd said. "I'm not asking him to do anything that he hasn't done. He's been in this league. He understands how to score the ball. Team defense is something that we will help him with as we go along here. He's capable of doing it. We'll hold him accountable to that. Just being able to play his game. I don't need him to be a microwave, I need him to be C-Wood."

If Wood shows enough defensive impact, it'll be intriguing to see how the situation changes. The potential of an offense that has Doncic making plays with Wood screening is immense. Would it be more worthwhile to maximize those minutes? That's why the NBA regular season is used as an 82-game long experimentation. 

"We are going to look at different things and see what's best for the team. The season is where you can get those answers," Kidd said. "It's one thing to have continuity but also to have answered the question of can two bigs play together, can they start together? Can you go with C-Wood at the five? Start him at the five? So we'll look at a few things."

In the long-run, Wood's skill-set could provide significant valuable for the Mavs throughout his time with the team. It'll be a challenge for opposing bench units to keep up with the scoring firepower the team has with Wood setting the tone.

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