Lakers Rumor: Mavs Sign-&-Trade Christian Wood?

Can a sign-and-trade with LeBron's Lakers be part of the goodbye between Christian Wood and the Mavs?

Maybe this came from simple Lakers Nation speculation on social media. Maybe it came from a two-week-old "media proposal'' that created the idea out of thin air. Or maybe there is a flicker of fire underneath the weird smoke.

DALLAS - As Christian Wood and the Dallas Mavs bid farewell to one another for reasons that have Wood saying that someday "I'll tell the real story'' - is there one more way they can help each other in ways that never quite came together in his one season here on the floor? Can a sign-and-trade be part of the goodbye?

We do have Yahoo! Sports' Jake Fischer reporting that the Mavericks free-agent forward could be garnering some interest from the Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat. "Christian Wood continues to be mentioned by league personnel as someone on the Heat’s radar," Fischer wrote.

And so somebody out there likes him after his season in Dallas in which Wood averaged 16.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game while shooting 37.4 percent from downtown in 67 games.

The Mavs, though, somehow never liked him enough to settle on a role. Throughout the season, Wood's minutes fluctuated with little consistency while starting 17 of 67 games played. ... and that all happened while the Mavs had major problems at center with guys like Dwight Powell and JaVale McGee.

Powell, by the way, has been re-signed in Dallas. McGee, we're told, can be "trade-dumped,'' it is hoped. (The Mavs look to unlock a new big man rotation that ideally will include rookie first-round pick Dereck Lively II.)

And Wood? Maybe he can meld well with Miami's current group of "misfits'' that made it to the NBA Finals this year. Or maybe there is something to the idea of LeBron James and the Lakers … the Wood put up monster numbers against all last season.

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