https://youtu.be/lc-62nJ6Mkk
The Rockets gave Christian Wood a lot of money. Not a TON of money, especially when compared to some of the eye-watering deals that have been handed out recently, but a lot of money considering that Wood was only really good for about one-half of one season. In the past, maybe they would’ve waited it out, to see if what Wood was doing was for real or just the common statpadding of an average player suddenly given a gigantic opportunity on a horrible team.
But the Rockets didn’t have time to waste. James Harden, their disgruntled superstar, spent the entire offseason making discontented noises, carousing with harlots in Las Vegas, and demanding trades to increasingly unlikely destinations (I personally was very surprised to hear that he wanted to play for the Norrköping Dolphins, but the beard wants what the beard wants). If Houston wanted to even have the chance of keeping him around, they needed to start putting some talent around him. Otherwise, they enter a dark age, possibly the darkest age of Rockets basketball yet.
So they got Wood. And John Wall. And DeMarcus Cousins. And Sterling Brown (if you beg hard enough I’ll at least consider the possibility of not making a highlight vid for his 10 points). But those other three don’t really matter. Wood is what matters. HARD WOOD.
Wood did a bit to silence his doubters in the preseason, where he quickly put up a monster statline. But that’s preseason. Everyone knows that preseason doesn’t matter at all. What he really needed to do to shush the naysayers was to come right out in the first game of the season and start spraying his beast sauce everywhere. Just step on to the court, look around disdainfully at his pathetic opposition, rev up the beast sauce dispensers, and go nuts. Cover everyone in the sauce. Teammates, refs, the hobo who snuck in to the arena because it was warm, everyone. Beast sauce EVERYWHERE.
That’s what he did. 31 points, he was basically unstoppable in the paint. Not as much of the perimeter game as we saw in Detroit, but when you can instead dunk it every time, there’s not much of a reason to shoot threes (Giannis I am frickin’ CALLING YOU OUT, stop shooting threes god damn it). Harden is still probably going to leave, but at least Wood has done his part by acting as an assist magnet. It won’t be his fault when Harden jets off to Sweden to play for Norrköping.
Sorry for the somewhat distorted and obscured footage I used. Cameras were not immune from getting drenched in Wood’s sauce.