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UNLV standout Christian Wood had one of the worst draft nights you could imagine. Expected to go somewhere late in the first or early in the second round of the 2015 NBA Draft, he instead saw pick No. 60 roll by with his name still uncalled. Fortunately for Wood, the nightmare was short-lived, as the Houston Rockets quickly signed him as a free agent. He’ll play in Summer League, and get a chance to earn an NBA roster spot after all.
This is a great pickup for the Rockets. Look, I’m not going to sit here and say that character concerns – supposedly the main concerns that led NBA teams to pass him up on draft night – are meaningless, but these concerns are the difference between end of the first round and middle of the second. They shouldn’t be the difference between end of the first round and a player being undrafted. I had Wood as somewhere in the high 20s as a prospect, and his upside is considerably higher. You simply don’t pass on this kind of player, especially with a pick late in the second round. Who are you taking instead? Second-round picks barely ever pan out!
Hopefully going undrafted will be a humbling experience for Wood – both for his sake and for the Rockets’. He’s not a sure thing in the talent department – he’s rather slow laterally, and has considerable work to do on his shot – but the tools to succeed in the NBA are there, and that’s not something you can say for the majority of second-round selections.
The Rockets just drafted Sam Dekker in the first round (Dekker fell a few picks from his projection), Montrezl Harrell in the second (he was projected to go in the first by many) and now get Wood as a free agent. It’s essentially as if GM Daryl Morey‘s playing NBA 2K and letting the CPU auto-pick the best-rated player available.
I’m not a huge fan of the Rockets, but things seem to be turning around for the better.
Casey Sherman is the Toronto Raptors Beat Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @shermham
