The NBA Summer League is a summer destination where players come to improve and work on their skills from their rookie season. Another reason would be trying to make a name for themselves in hopes of joining an NBA roster. When it comes to Philadelphia 76ers forward Christian Wood, the latter of the two statements can be applied. This summer, Wood is with the Sixers for the Utah and Las Vegas summer leagues after the team signed him as an undrafted free agent out of UNLV last fall.
Wood is an athletic and lanky big man, who could be listed as a stretch four or five, depending on the team. His 6’10”, 216-pound frame helps him on both sides of the ball. Unlike his fellow teammates in Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel, Wood can get out in transition and has an offensive game, which is improving every time he steps on to the court.
The qualities I’ve just listed about Wood’s game is what he is showing in this summer’s edition of the Utah Summer League. Wood has come into the summer league with a purpose and looking to improve on what he did in with the Sixers and Delaware 87ers (Sixers’ D-League affiliate) this past season. Wood was with them in the preseason and played in 17 regular season games last year.
In those 17 regular season games, he averaged 3.6 points, 2.2 rebounds and 0.4 blocks per game. While those stats may not be eye-popping, Wood has the potential to be a formidable stretch forward in the NBA and he is tapping into that his first two summer league games.
On Monday night against the Boston Celtics, Wood quietly made his mark on the game while everyone was amazed by the play of Ben Simmons and Richaun Holmes. Wood was getting out in transition, knocked down a couple of three-pointers and showed to Sixers’ personnel (and the entire NBA) that he can put the ball on the floor and get to the basket.
Sometimes it may not look pretty when Wood goes to the basket because of his frame, but he is only 20 years-old with time still to put on weight. Against the Celtics, Wood led all Sixers’ players with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field and 1-of-2 from three-point range, along with five rebounds. He did all of this while only playing 15 minutes, making the most out of his time on the court.
But if you thought that was just a one-hit wonder performance from Wood on Monday night. He duplicated the same type of performance on Tuesday evening against the San Antonio Spurs. Without Simmons or Holmes playing, it was an excellent opportunity for Wood to show what he could do.
Against San Antonio, Wood continued to show his range and get those easy baskets around the rim. He finished the game with 19 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 from three-point range, and grabbing seven rebounds (5 defensive).
For a lot of basketball fans, this is the first time, they are watching Wood on this stage, but he’s played like this for the entire basketball season with the 87ers of the NBA D-League last year. In 32 games with the 87ers, Wood averaged 17.3 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 28.8 minutes per game. He also shot an outstanding 52.9 percent from the field and 70.7 percent from the free throw line.
Despite what some may say about the D-League, it was beneficial to Wood and we are seeing it pay off right now in the Utah Summer League. Earlier, I had mentioned that Wood has worked on extending his range, and he did that with the Sevens.
In fact, Wood had two monster games this past season posting a stat line of 45 points and 14 rebounds against the Canton Charge on February 28, and then against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants on March 18, he scored 40 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
Wood’s 45-point performance against Canton was quite impressive as he was allowed to do whatever he wanted to in the post and continuously killed the Charge off the pick and roll. Also in that game, he shot 66.7 percent from three-point range, including a step back three-pointer in the face of a Canton player.
If you want to see it for yourself, you can below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No-s3QVW3jI]Fast forward to the present day and Wood will have another chance to impress the Sixers’ personnel as they play one more game in the Utah Summer League against the Jazz before departing for the Las Vegas Summer League.
Currently, the Sixers’ roster does not have any more room for another big man, especially with the addition of Dario Saric coming soon. This means that Wood will likely be the odd man out, but he has a couple of options going for him. The first option is that the Sixers could re-sign him, bring him to the camp and stash him in Delaware continuing to develop in their system.
The second option is that another NBA team can pick him up, giving Wood a chance to be a rotation player right off the bat. If I were a betting man, I would think option two is more plausible for Wood because the secret is out. The Sixers can’t hide him anymore as Wood has started to tap into that potential that many people saw at UNLV.
It will be interesting to see what the rest of the summer beholds for Wood as he continues to impress in the association’s summer showcase.
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