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

[DanSchwartzgan]

Tim Cato has a chat with the Houston writer today in the Athletic.  It is mostly about Wood.

Iko talks about how much Wood liked the idea of playing with Harden and Wall.  He didn't mind the 'third star" role and thought the diversity of his game would be valued and valuable.  But, that obviously that didn't last very long...and you quickly had what was termed "attitude missteps".


Iko: It’s complicated like you said. A lot of times, Wood’s ego got the best of him, especially on a young team trying to develop several players at the same time. Green was heralded as the guy in Houston from Day 1 — Wood wasn’t too fond of that. Stephen Silas wanted to run an equal opportunity, versatile scheme — Wood wasn’t too fond of that. He wanted a clear pecking order and believed that the departures of Harden and Wall vaulted him to the top by default.

But situations change quickly, and people change too. Wood had to leave that mindset on I-45 after coming into Dallas, where Dončić is the end-all, be-all. Call me crazy, but I think the decision to bring Wood off the bench — and make it public before the season ever started — was to get that mental shift started early. Defensively, he still has some work to do, which I’m sure you’ll get into later, but on the other side of the ball, he’s as dynamic as big men come. An extension with the Mavericks makes sense for both parties.