Christian Wood was the biggest acquisition of the Dallas Mavericks in the off-season. The former Rockets center was supposed to be the second-in-command to Luka Doncic. 20 games into the season, though, and it seems as if Jason Kidd is more interested in seeing Wood ride the pine instead of playing when it matters.
That was once again evident during the Mavs' latest loss to the Toronto Raptors. Curiously, Wood was absent from Dallas' closing lineup, with Kidd going with Maxi Kleber instead. When asked about it after the game, the head coach gave this rather interesting answer, courtesy of Landon Thomas.
“Maxi’s first game back was great. As we talked about earlier, we got a lot of bigs that can play. This isn’t a big’s game you can only play one a lot of times.”
Well, that's certainly… an answer. Jason Kidd's insistence on giving Christian Wood less minutes is completely baffling. It also potentially cost the Mavs a shot at winning the game: the final play of the game saw Kleber get flustered on the short roll after being dimed up by Doncic on a pick-and-roll. That eventually led to a turnover, sealing their fate against Toronto.
It's not clear why Kidd has kept his team's biggest offseason acquisition on the bench. Yes, Christian Wood has glaring flaws on defense. However, his offensive abilities should take the load off of Luka Doncic when he needs to rest. At the very least, your best offensive big should be on the court for the final offensive possession, instead of a defense-oriented big like Kleber.
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