THE CRUCIFIX: Cato: Wood isn't thrilled w/ his role...Will depart in the summer

[Dundalis]

I will say this again because I don't think people are getting it -- I see evidence that this is an issue of Kidd demanding "team" takes precedence over "me and my minutes/stats" whereas Wood doesn't tend to operate that way. And this is Luka's team, not Wood's, so this issue is NOT negotiable.

Whether it's a major fight, where Wood simply refuses to care and expects to just do what he prefers, or whether it's just a process of doing the "training" work game after game (minutes, etc being used to remind and reinforce) remains to be seen. I'm hopeful it's the latter, not the former. And Kidd definitely has the skins on the wall of being a real teacher, who figures out how to get willing players to form good habits to the benefit of both them and the team, so there's that.

This might or might not be the case, but there is literally no evidence of it happening on the court. Wood is actively and consistently giving up on opportunities where he could totally create a scoring opportunity for himself. In fact I wish he would take more shots and be more aggressive offensively some possessions because his offensive skillset for his size is super impressive, and he has a fricken 68% TS! Almost all the shots he takes are within the offensive flow. His willingness to pass the ball for someone who is apparently a selfish ballhog, is pretty impressive to me.

So if this mentality exists, it must exist off court only, because someone like THJ on the other hand, gets no criticism from the coach, and is far more selfish than Wood taking forced shots outside the offensive flow, while also being completely inefficient and also playing even less defense. Wood has been defensively solid at a minimum, his rebounding and off ball shot blocking make him a defensive factor even if his on ball work isn't very good.

It's almost like Wood is being criticised for reputation and play PRIOR to Dallas as opposed to what he's actually doing in Dallas. Which is dumb. Now if he's causing mayhem in the locker room and practice court then fair enough. But usually you see some evidence flow on court. And to be perfectly honest, the whole this is Luka's team and his alone thing and any threat to that needs to be cut off is stupid when the whole issue is Luka carries too much load. You WANT someone who might have the talent to step up and take some of that load, it will still be Luka's team purely because he's arguably the most talented player in the league, but if that means when you hear the Mavericks you think duo rather than solo, that should be a good thing.