The Mavericks have made their decision on the draft night of 2022, more than a week before the June 23 event.
Dallas will change its first-round pick (No. 26 overall) and reserve Boban Marjanovic, Trey Burke, Sterling Brown and Marquese Chriss at the Houston Rockets for Christian Wood Center, a source confirmed to The Dallas Morning News Wednesday night .
The deal fulfills one of the Mavericks’ main goals this offseason: to improve the production and depth of the front court and unload the expiring contract of several underused players.
Dallas and Houston cannot officially complete the exchange until draft night because the Mavericks owe the New York Knicks a protected selection of the top 10 in 2023, and the NBA prohibits teams from swapping the first round in consecutive years.
But fans did not wait to praise general manager Nico Harrison and the Mavericks movement.
Wood, 26, started 67 of the 68 games for the Rockets last season and averaged 17.9 points, 10.1 rebounds and one block per game while shooting 50% from the field and 39% from of three.
The big 6-10, 214-pound man will earn $ 14.3 million for the 2022-23 season, the last year of the three-year, $ 41 million deal he signed before the 2020 season. 21.
At the time, the former Mavericks front-line regime was interested in acquiring a player whose talent had not always been consistent as he played for five teams: Philadelphia, Charlotte, Milwaukee, New Orleans and Detroit. his first four years in the NBA.
But in the last two with Houston, Wood has averaged 19.1 points and 9.9 rebounds per game, while improving his 3-point shooting percentage to 39%, the highest of his career, the 2021- 22 in a 68-game season, the best of his career.
This is the kind of production the Mavericks wanted during their run to the Western Conference Finals.
Base tandem Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson and winger 3 and D Dorian Finney-Smith and Reggie Bullock exceeded expectations during the franchise’s first appearance in the playoffs of several rounds since the 2011 championship, but the center’s contributions they were not lacking.
Dwight Powell remained a starter throughout the season and played in all 100 Mavericks games during the season.
But his playing time slowed significantly in the clashes against the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors as the Mavericks turned to small ball lineups and sought more 3-point shot production.
That left coach Jason Kidd to lead forward pivot Maxi Kleber in the center – when he had no foul problems – or went ultra small with Finney-Smith as a five.
Harrison and Kidd also pointed to the team’s rebounding struggles as reasons why Dallas lost the conference final in five games.
“If you look back at the series, we’ve lost some games on the boards,” Harrison said in his May 27 exit interview. “That’s important. We need to get someone who can help us with the rebounds, be a tire protector. I think we need to find out, for sure.”
The wood is immediately incorporated as an initial potential, with little interruption of rotation.
Marjanovic ($ 3.5 million), Burke ($ 3.3 million), Brown ($ 3 million) and Chriss ($ 2.2 million) are entering the final year of their deals. They were ranked as the four least used players by the Mavericks in the postseason. No one recorded more than 3.8 minutes per game, and often at the end of the blast results.
Along with the No. 26 general team rookie contract (projected to be about $ 1.9 million in 2022-23), the math on the contract coincides with Wood’s salary, and the Mavericks strengthened their hole. of the biggest list before the serious low season of the league begins.
A: Wood, who will be eligible for a four-year, $ 77 million extension six months after the trade transfer, according to ESPN.
Outside: Expired assets to a rebuilding franchise that wants to give its young front-line prospects more playing time anyway.
The only concern?
Marjanovic and Doncic had made a particularly close friendship during their three overlapping seasons in Dallas.
They were united by their Balkan roots, Serbian language, and silly personalities.
Will the superstar of the franchise not get angry to see his good friend leave?
Harrison made it clear that he would consult and update Doncic on every move on the list.
“We’ll have a million things on the board and come up with ideas back and forth,” Harrison said during his outing interview. “Look at Luka, no matter how big he is, he has a different point of view than I might and maybe [assistant general manager Michael Finley] it would and maybe even JKidd, so we want to accept that.
“And then we could have a different point of view than him, and we want him to understand that too. I think it’s a two-way street. I think you’re crazy about trying to build a list and not include your best player. no sense “.
Unless otherwise changed, Dallas will not add a draft player for the second year in a row because Harrison and Co. they changed their second round of 2022 in Washington in the Kristaps Porzingis-Spencer Dinwiddie-Davis Bertans deal last February.
But the Mavericks will not hold out during free agency.
Harrison has re-signed Brunson, the Mavericks’ only free agent on the 15-man roster this offseason, as the team’s number one priority.
They will also have a $ 10.9 million trade exception (which expires on June 29 from last year’s Josh Richardson deal) and a mid-level exception for available luxury taxpayers.
Luxury, in fact, because Wood’s arrival will make his greatest position of need no longer.
Twitter: @CallieCaplan
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