Mavericks Rumors: Christian Wood Won't Return in Free Agency; Dallas Has 'Moved on'

The Dallas Mavericks don't plan on bringing back center Christian Wood next season, according to league insider Marc Stein. Wood is set to hit free agency after just one season with the organization.

It's been expected that the Mavericks didn't want to bring Wood back following a season in which he started just 17 games after being their big trade acquisition in 2022.

Stein reported that the franchise is looking to "move on" from Wood and rebuild its center rotation, which also raises questions regarding starter Dwight Powell, who is set to hit unrestricted free agency as well.

The Mavericks acquired Wood via trade in June 2022 after he spent the previous two seasons with the Rockets in exchange for Boban Marjanović, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss, Sterling Brown, and the draft rights to Wendell Moore Jr..

And things looked promising to start the campaign as he became the first player in franchise history to score at least 25 points in each of his first two games with the team. Despite that production, he spent most of the year coming off the bench behind Powell.

He did wound up averaging more minutes per night than Powell with 25.9 compared to just 19.2 for the latter.

Wood would eventually get a solid run of starts in December and January, which included a seven-game win streak. However, a thumb injury caused him to sit out for an extended period and he'd never crack the starting line up again.

While it was never made completely clear as to why Wood didn't get the nod, coach Jason Kidd hinted at times that it had to do with the big man's lack of defensive prowess.

So, what was once seen as a potentially great addition for the Mavericks didn't quite work out as they had hoped, much like the rest of their season.

Coming off a Western Conference Finals appearance in 2022, Dallas missed out on the postseason entirely and ended up in the lottery despite having a superstar duo in Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving.

Wood averaged 16.6 points per game last season to go along with 7.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks on 51.5 percent shooting from the field and 37.6 percent from three-point range.