Christian Wood
If the Jazz are going to get the victory they want tonight, they need to stop Christian Wood. Since his team has been dismantled, Wood has stepped up and taken advantage of extra playing time and touches.
Wood shockingly went undrafted in the 2015 NBA draft, but has quietly developed into a nice NBA player the past five years. He made a jump from a fringe rotation guy to a role player last season with the New Orleans Pelicans, and has maintained his solid play this season.
In a lot of ways this reminds me of the situation of the Golden State Warriors and Eric Paschall. They didn’t plan on playing Paschall extended minutes as a starter when they acquired him, but when they had no choice but to do it, the young power forward was a pleasant surprise.
https://twitter.com/DetroitPistons/status/1235398911063404547
Wood was a name a couple of Jazz pundits had on their wishlist for the trade deadline, and I don’t blame them. He can play the stretch four position without giving up too much defensively, the type of player the Jazz have a glaring hole at on their roster.
Since the All-Star break, he is averaging 22 points, 10 rebounds, and a block per game on 52/43/82 shooting splits. Not too shabby at all.
As for who should take on the defensive assignment, he might cause a little trouble for Royce O’Neale given the six inch gap in height. It’ll be interesting to see how the Jazz choose to contain him, especially since he plays in a front court with John Henson (33 percent shooter from deep).
Bobby Portis went off for 21 points when the Knicks played the Jazz, and Julius Randle went off for 32 points. The Jazz have had trouble containing mobile power forwards of late, so hopefully they can get it together and lock down the paint and perimeter tonight.