Christian Wood says goodbye to Dallas Mavericks for good?

Trading for Christian Wood was arguably Dallas Mavericks' biggest move of the summer of 2022.

Dallas was knocked out of the Western Conference Finals just over a month before by the Golden State Warriors and knew they needed to make a move for front-court depth after being dominated on the glass in this series.

Many fans thought Wood would be the answer to the Mavs' problems, but as the season wrapped up, losing Wood seemed inevitable. Wood's tweet on Monday night all but confirms that.

Christian Wood says goodbye to Dallas Mavericks for good?

Wood went to Twitter on Monday night and thanked Dallas' fans for their continuous support throughout the season. He went on to say, "Dallas has a special place in my heart." These farewell tweets typically don't come until the player signs a contract with their next team, but C-Wood sent this tweet just one day after the season ended.

Wood is an unrestricted free agent this summer and has the freedom to sign wherever he pleases. And after this tweet and multiple events during the season, it doesn't seem like it is going to be back in Dallas.

On Sunday afternoon, Marc Stein reported (subscription required) that Wood would probably "not be asked back" following the season. Wood saw his minutes fluctuate just as much as anyone on the team, and Dallas just never seemed to get behind playing him consistently or trusting him to play at the end of games.

Before the Kyrie Irving trade, Wood was playing some of his best basketball of the season. In January, he was averaging 21 points and ten rebounds per game. It finally seemed like Dallas was leaning on Wood as he was starting and playing an average of 34 minutes per game.

But on January 18 Wood fractured his thumb in a game against the Atlanta Hawks, and things were never the same once he returned. His minutes per game in the month of February were down to 19 a night. He never seemed to be incorporated into Dallas' plans and didn't start another game for the rest of the season.

Although Wood had his problems defensively and seemed to not fully be locked in during games, his playing time was still down more than it should have been. He always seemed to give the Mavericks' offense a spark when he was checked in but never saw his minutes return to the volume they were at in December and January.

To make matters worse Mark Cuban said that his biggest summer priority was to re-sign Kyrie Irving but when asked about Wood he said, "I'm not going to go through individual players." This quote alone shows that the Mavericks do not seem eager to re-sign Wood.

Cuban's quote ahead of Dallas' matchup with the Kings last Wednesday combined with Wood's cryptic tweet all but confirms that he won't be with the Dallas Mavericks next season unless something drastically changes. Stay tuned to see where Wood lands and how Dallas decides to replace him if he signs elsewhere.