3 reasons why the Mavericks will regret the Christian Wood experiment

The vibes were still immaculate when the Dallas Mavericks acquired Christian Wood just days before the 2022 NBA Draft last summer. Things quickly took a turn for the worse though, as Wood was unfairly thrust into the role of second-best player on the team by some Mavs fans after Jalen Brunson's departure.

The Mavericks' front office had different plans though, as reports soon surfaced that Wood would come off the bench so the Mavericks could start then newly acquired center JaVale McGee. The whole situation didn't make much sense given the Mavericks expelled a first-round pick for Wood and the fact that he was theoretically a great pick-and-roll/pop partner with Luka Doncic.

Wood's defensive deficiencies proved too much for him to overcome in his efforts to secure a starting role with Dallas consistently, but McGee turned out even worse than Wood this past season, and it seemed like Jason Kidd definitely could have given Christian Wood a little bit more of a leash as his dynamism on offense translated to the other side of the ball a lot better when he had more of a featured role.

Regardless of it all, it's clear Dallas completely whiffed on the Christian Wood experiment despite it luckily not being as big of a screw-up as some of their other egregious offseason mishaps in recent memory.

Here are three reasons why the Dallas Mavericks will regret the Christian Wood experiment.

3. The Dallas Mavericks wasted a first-round pick on Christian Wood

Christian Wood was traded to the Dallas Mavericks on June 15, 2022, in exchange for Boban Marjanovic, Marquese Chriss, Sterling Brown, Trey Burke, and the Mavericks' 26th overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft (Ended up becoming Wendell Moore).

With Wood's time in Dallas officially over after he signed in Los Angeles last week, it's fairly objective to say the Mavericks wasted a first-round pick by acquiring Wood. It's been reported that Wood was more of a consolation prize for the Mavericks, whose main goal was to shed the salary of their four worst players on the team at the time.

This doesn't make the fact that Dallas expended a first-round pick on Wood hurt any less though. Dallas could've made another cost-cutting move that didn't involve sending a first-round pick out the door, or if that wasn't possible, they at least could have made a move that wasn't sending back a player to Dallas that Mavs' head coach Jason Kidd reportedly didn't want.

The thinking behind the Dallas front office methodology on the Wood deal makes sense. Nico Harrison and the rest of the upper brass brought in Wood for a chance that he somehow worked out, and if not they likely thought that his expiring contract would be a chip to deal at the trade deadline.

However, Wood just became increasingly disgruntled throughout the season, and it was very obvious there was a sincere disconnect between him, the front office, and head coach Jason Kidd. Wood shouldn't have been brought into Dallas in the first place, as Dallas underrated how even a slight pre-existing disconnect between player and coach could cause them to endure the worst-case scenario of losing their 2022 first-round pick for virtually nothing in the end.