A lot of NBA players have seen their tremendous seasons cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. Who on the Detroit Pistons has this impacted most?
The 2020 NBA season wasn’t quite going as the Detroit Pistons expected. Actually, most of 2020 isn’t going how many expected. Obviously, there are far greater things happening in the world than what is happening in sports, especially because there are no sports being played.
With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the globe, many of life’s greatest pleasures are shutting down, getting delayed, or outright canceled.
The 2020 Olympics are now the 2021 Olympics. The status of the NBA, MLB, NHL, and NFL is all up in the air.
The Detroit Pistons sit atop the worst records in the NBA at the time of the league being postponed with a record of 20-46. They didn’t really have much going for them once they traded away Andre Drummond and reached a buyout with Reggie Jackson.
It also didn’t help that both Luke Kennard and Blake Griffin were likely to miss the season with their respective injuries.
With the season being postponed, at the least until the summer, and very well could begin with the postseason, the Pistons and their fanbase saw some of the lowest lows this season. However, the biggest loser of the season isn’t their winning percentage, but Christian Wood.
The Pistons took a chance on Wood as they elected to keep him over Joe Johnson at the beginning of the season, and, boy, did it ever pay off.
Wood doubled his total for career games played this season by appearing in 62 games. He’s averaging 13.1 points per game with shooting splits of .567/.386/.744 on the season.
A larger takeaway from this is that up until the trade deadline, Wood and Thon Maker were continuously battling for minutes when Drummond was substituted out.
When Drummond was traded, it was made much more obvious that Wood was the heir apparent to be his replacement.
Until the NBA was delayed due to COVID-19, Wood was having the greatest stretch in his young career. In a week’s span, he raised his career-high in points from 29 to 30 to 32. His final game of the season (so far) was 32 points on 14-18 shooting. And then the coronavirus intervened.
What happens moving forward is not yet know. Since the Drummond trade to Cleveland, Wood was putting up efficient numbers while playing significant minutes. He averaged 34 minutes per game and scored 22.7 points per game in the 13 games following the trade deadline, starting all but two games.
Wood has certainly played himself into a nice payday. A few teams, including the New York Knicks, have shown interest in signing him. As an unrestricted free agent, the Pistons can’t really go “hey back off he’s ours,” as that probably won’t prevent anyone from doing anything.
They could spread a rumor such as Wood pours the milk in his bowl before he pours the cereal in, but there’s no way that could be true since no sane person would ever do that. Though, the Pistons could re-sign him.
Already with considerable cap space heading into the summer of free agency (maybe the fall free agency depending on how postponed things get), Detroit is in a great position to re-sign the 24-year-old. The team, the city, and the fans took a chance on the big man that was overlooked by many. The hope is that he can represent the Motor City for years to come.