NBA suspension could improve Christian Wood’s case for Most Improved Player

The NBA season being under temporary suspension could potentially benefit one of the Detroit Pistons’ standouts before award season.

It’s a long shot, but the Detroit Pistons may have some representation once the NBA Awards arrive. It’ll be difficult to make a better case for the Most Improved Player award over the likes of Brandon Ingram and Bam Adebayo, but Christian Wood‘s name should be in there.

Pistons fans have talked about him nonstop over the last few months, and we’ve especially been writing about him a ton, all for good reason too.

We’ve been telling his story dozens of times, but it’s because everyone needs to hear it.

When it comes down to it, Wood is someone who was never given a proper chance. He’s bounced around the league for the past few seasons and no one would give him the shot that he needed until he arrived in New Orleans last year.

Over the eight total games that he played for the Pelicans, he averaged 16.9 points and 7.9 rebounds per game on 53.3 percent shooting. He also scored over 20 points in three of those games.

It was this stretch that put his name on the map.

He was waived by New Orleans just a few months later, and Detroit picked him up. Signing him to a non-guaranteed contract.

It appeared that the Pistons were going to go into the regular season with him as their clear backup center behind Andre Drummond, but then they signed NBA veteran Joe Johnson.

Now, there was a preseason competition between him and Wood for the final spot.

It was obvious after just one game who Detroit needed to sign on for the remainder of the season. Not just because of Wood’s outstanding play, but because they also desperately needed a backup five.

Eventually the decision was made to cut Johnson, and bring on Wood for the season.

It wasn’t very glamorous from the start though, as Dwane Casey often preferred to play Thon Maker behind Drummond as Wood was too often finding himself in compromising defensive positions.

After spending the first two months of the season seeing inconsistent minutes, Wood finally began to see more appropriate playing time.

As the season progressed, so did he. It felt like every single night he was improving as a defender, a rebounder or a scorer. At times it felt like it was difficult for he and Drummond to coexist along the boards, but they made it work.

One game that stood out in particular was against Sacramento, where he scored 23 points on a perfect 7 of 7 from the field. He also hit 9 of his 11 attempts at the free throw line.

Once the February 6th trade deadline rolled around, the Pistons shipped Drummond to Cleveland. This was maybe the best thing that could have happened to Wood, as he could now fully showcase his potential.

Naturally, he didn’t disappoint.

He’s very quickly established himself as someone who will dunk on absolutely everything. Someone who can jump higher than the basketball and will meet an opponent at the rim.

Since that trade he’s averaged 22.8 points and 9.9 rebounds per game on 56.2 percent shooting which includes 40.0 percent from three-point range.

Detroit finally has a floor spacing big man who’s often displaying his versatility on the offensive end.

He played so well over the last few months that he garnered trade interest from the Boston Celtics and the Houston Rockets, as well as some free agency notice from the New York Knicks.

A lot of what he’s done this season went largely unnoticed until a four game stretch that “closed” out the season, where Wood posted career highs in points in nearly three consecutive games.

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In what may have been the final game of the season for Detroit, he scored 32 points on 77.8 percent shooting.

He also gained a lot of attention after he became the third NBA player to test positively for COVID-19, the virus that has put the NBA’s season on hiatus.

Basketball’s more “casual” side of the fandom may not have known much about him until this happened. Since then there have been a barrage of social media posts and articles written about him. People are starting to take notice.

So while it’s a shame that it took something so unfortunate for people to start paying attention, it could work out for the best.

Given the fact that there could be a few months until the season resumes, that means the awards won’t be announced for an even longer amount of time. This means that fans and more specifically, voters, will have more time to learn about Wood’s journey this year.

Someone who had to be signed by a fifth team in just four seasons to get a real chance. Someone who had to battle with a seasoned veteran for a roster spot. Someone who built his game up from the ground.

But most importantly, someone could is one of the most improved players of the year.