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

[F Gump]

I don't subscribe to the clause afterwards, but the bolded seems pretty transparently clear to me and the vast majority of informed Mavs fans, and without that subsequent clause, the Occam's Razor is that Kidd is a really awful and dumb basketball coach. However, given the additional info of how well Kidd did with last year's team until his lack of adjustments in the WCFs, if the bolded is wrong, those attitude and coaching issues you cited as potential explanations would have to be simply elephantine beyond our imagining to justify Wood's minutes. It boggles the mind, but perhaps you're right and there is a library's worth of issues we simply don't know about.

I don't think we outsiders have a clue. And I would suggest that inside the team, they probably ALL have a pretty good idea of why Wood is not getting more play.

I see those who travel with the team - beat writers (not the bloggers and national media who cast opinions from afar) - and they obliquely say that there is a reason Wood has been bouncing from team to team throughout his career.

I am reminded of when I played the game many moons ago. I don't recall this happening regularly on every team, but one team (several seasons) I played on a team with an INCREDIBLY talented player who just drove us nuts. He was a big man, could be dominant, and we knew he was coming, and were eager for him to be on our team because he could make us better. But once on the team, he was incredibly frustrating, because he could be so unfocused, immature, distracted. One game great, and another one it was like his head was elsewhere. The same thing in practices, where he would at times be goofy and playful and we couldn't get things done.. It drove the coaches and the rest of the team completely nuts, because he (and we) were so much better when we could get his head on straight. In some games, we did much better when he sat, because he was just a guy.

He's a good guy. Still a good friend. Mostly has grown out of the lack of maturity and focus, yet has retained his joyfulness. But back then, it was an ongoing frustrating task of trying to get him to contribute up to his potential. I wonder if that's part of what Wood brings to the table.