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

[SleepingHero]

Pistons wanted to resign him (allegedly) but Wood wanted to be on a good team.

The narrative that the Pistons wanted him came from this Athletic article by James Edward III on a story he wrote about Wood when he broke out on the Rockets in 2021. They did want him, but only at just under 10 mil a year, and for the amount that cost them literally the least amount possible:

Detroit wanted him to be part of this retooling, as well. However, there was a specific price in mind. Detroit had Wood’s “Early Bird” rights, which meant that if it were able to sign him to a deal that paid, roughly, $10 million annually, Wood’s salary would only count as $1.7 million against their cap. Anything more would count toward the cap in full. Per sources, Detroit didn’t offer more than the annual amount that it would take for the smallest cap hit.

Wood wanted the most amount of money first, the good team part was secondary. Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. Go make your money, but this isn't like the Pistons were offering equal money and Wood declined them, but rather the Pistons made it clear early on they had other priorities. The same article said as such:

The priority for the Pistons under Weaver was to acquire Grant, who, especially defensively, fits more of the mold of what the revamped front office was looking for.

Wood and his reps then turned their attention elsewhere. The Rockets, who were now under new leadership but still interested in landing Wood’s services, stepped up to the plate.

Joined the Rockets to play with Harden and Harden left. Tanking shitshow ensued.

It's up to the player to make the most of his situation. Imagine if Wood bought in and led the Rockets to several wins being a key star and showed growth on both ends of the court? Dude could have set himself up for a big payday this summer if he put in 2 years of work and showing growth. Rather he pout when the coach didn't run plays for him, fight said coach at halftime because he lost his starting spot for a night when he arrived late at practice, and literally refuse to check into a game cause he was pouting? Tanking shit show or not, Wood's attitude was well documented and a primary reason teams were afraid of taking him on. This attitude thing also wasn't new. That label has followed Wood his entire career.

Hasn't been given a real chance to be the guy in Dallas despite being the most talented big by a LARGE margin. Why?... Kidd?...The front office? Contract BS? Dwight is a coaches pet? I don't really find it useful to be a LARP and claim to know. Lets not forget that they promised the spot to McGee. LOL.

I'm not trying to LARP here, but rather try to explain something that on paper clearly doesn't make sense. I'm offering plausible reasons (not all of them I agreed with per se, re: the devil advocate comment). You can go ahead and make an argument that Wood didn't get a fair shot because of any reason, as long as you back it up. Kidd is a dolt, Dwight has Nico's sex tape loaded up on twitter and ready to go if he doesn't start, and Cuban is more of a metal guy etc. 

I'm taking the angle that Wood not getting a fair shake has more to do with him and his well documented attitude (and team's lack of enthusiasm for giving him a fair shot), rather than our head coach going out of his way to sabotage the team by purposefully benching the most talented (but flawed!) big on the roster. Again, Kidd COULD be doing that. There have been stories of him in the past absolutely mind fucking his players, and I can't 100% rule out that here. 

We have a bottom 5 coach.

Unless you have Nico's phone tapped, there is no way you could make the argument that nobody wanted Wood. I could list several alternatives, but again LARPing as an FBI agent with insider info isn't for me.

Half of the fun about being a fan is about speculating about stuff. Just like above I'm sure you can list several alternatives (I'd love to shoot the shit over them!) about why Wood wasn't traded. Given Wood had fallen out of the rotation, him subtweeting the entire deadline, and the fact we had multiple leaks about how much the Mavs wanted to move him and THJ, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Wood's value at the TDL was close to zero. To the point where the Mavs probably said "I'd rather take 2 months more of Wood than a measly 2nd." 

Who knows though?