Report: Mavs Coaches Didn't View Christian Wood as NBA All-Star-Caliber Player

When he arrived in Dallas during the 2022 offseason from Houston, Christian Wood had high expectations from everyone in and around the organization.

The 27-year-old center was coming off a couple of career years with the Rockets, averaging a double-double the previous season.

But things just never panned out for him with the Mavericks and he doesn't seem to be a part of their long-term plans moving forward, according to The Athletic's Tim Cato.

Wood ended up starting just 17 games in Dallas after the team acquired him from Houston in exchange for Boban Marjanović, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss, Sterling Brown and the draft rights to Wendell Moore Jr.

Cato reported that part of the reason that his role with the team was so inconsistent was that the coaching staff never believed that he was an All-Star-caliber talent, despite the work of his agent, Adam Pensack, to convince people otherwise.

Now, both Wood and fellow center Dwight Powell are set to become unrestricted free agents, and Cato's sources within the organization don't expect Wood to be back in Dallas when next season rolls around.

In 2022 Wood averaged 16.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in 25.9 minutes a night. Those were his lowest marks since the 2019-20 season when he was with the Detroit Pistons.

His struggles were symptomatic of a bad Mavericks team that missed the postseason after going 38-44 even with the star duo of Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving.