For whatever reason, NBA teams were turned off by Wood
I enjoyed the kid who acted as if the Knicks just stole his bike when they selected the Latvian guy with toothpicks for legs. I really enjoyed the kid’s nutcase of a father, a model of sound and admirable guidance when he showed the kid a proper way to boo his favorite team and the correct hand gestures to accompany such displeasure.
Parenting in 2015.
Ward Cleaver isn’t walking through any doors.
I’m pretty sure Chris Wood didn’t enjoy much of anything Thursday.
New York fans never disappoint when it comes to those who attend the NBA Draft each June, a theme that continued when the annual exercise of adding new faces to rosters verified a few things about those who left UNLV’s program early after last season:
Rashad Vaughn absolutely made the correct choice, and Wood might be seriously rethinking such a decision.
How does a player who in March was being whispered as a potential lottery pick end up even beyond where analyst Fran Fraschilla joked was the “warm body portion of the draft.”
How does one go from being labeled a definite first-round selection to not being picked at all in a matter of months?
The level of disappointment in Wood’s camp had to have reached epic levels, and yet this is the risk one takes when deciding to forfeit remaining college eligibility and chase a professional dream when your name isn’t Karl Anthony-Towns.
The draft opened and Wood began a slide that ended with the 6-foot-11-inch forward never hearing his name.
What happened?
If the wave for Vaughn continued to rise as the draft drew closer, that of Wood seemed to crash in recent weeks with reports that teams not only weren’t sold on his ability to contribute or on footwork that proved to be average at best during workouts, but also that they were definitely concerned about his attitude and a work ethic that was questionable at best some nights in college.
Wood just didn’t play hard all the time for the Rebels.
He sulked a lot. He took possessions off.
These are not debatable points.
Nor is this: The idea that Wood now will have to earn his way onto a bench by beginning his career in the Development League is almost certain. He obviously has much to prove in the eyes of those who make decisions at the NBA level.
Look. Teams miss on players all the time, but not often to this degree. Something, likely many things, turned teams off on Wood. When you consider the projects at his position chosen over him, many of them foreigners who don’t have a chance at making a team next season and perhaps ever, you realize how little good Wood did for himself during workouts and interviews.
Some of those tweets he posted during and after the draft:
Just waiting to get my name called
Dont be scared to draft me I’m the biggest sleeper in the draft #JustWait
#JustWait
Great.. im keeping my head high and staying humble i have a chip on my shoulder and im using it on every (bleep) i go against #JustWait
Uh, yeah. He wrote something other than bleep.
Turns out, he also waited much longer than most probably envisioned when Wood left UNLV after his sophomore season.
It was a bad decision only if he truly weighed the option of returning to school. If at no point was Wood serious about continuing his studies, then going undrafted is merely a challenge he must now face. But if he actually thought about coming back to what would be a better team for a season in which he would have potentially been named Mountain West preseason Player of the Year, Wood’s calculation about where he would land proved disastrous.
Not so for Vaughn.
He showed that impressing during workouts can skyrocket a guy’s spot on draft boards, having been selected 17th overall by Milwaukee. His ascension in the past several weeks had something to do with Vaughn proving his twice surgically repaired knee is sound and a lot with how most envision the NBA will look in the coming years.
No one plays the role of copycat better then general managers, and there is nothing hotter right now than the style Golden State employed in winning its championship. More and more, teams are going to try to space the floor with a post player and surround him with several 3-point shooters and a point guard who can get to the rim off the dribble.
Vaughn hasn’t turned 19 and has the scoring skill to fit nicely into the modern NBA. I’m not sure he can guard Milwaukee’s mascot right now (Bango seems like a pretty tough dude), which might not play well in the team’s pressure defensive system, but he also doesn’t need much help creating a shot.
I would assume Vaughn as a first-round pick would begin his career coming off the bench behind players such as Khris Middleton and O.J. Mayo, not the worst position to learn and grow and develop.
I also would assume that kid and his old man who booed the Knicks for taking Kristaps Porzingis with the fourth overall pick aren’t any happier today.
As for Chris Wood?
I guess we have to #JustWait and see.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on “Seat and Ed” on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.
