Christian Wood Shares Adoration For Rockets Coach Stephen Silas

After two seasons playing for the Houston Rockets, Christian Wood shares adoration for coach Stephen Silas.

HOUSTON — Christian Wood will have a new role during his first season with the Dallas Mavericks. 

He will come off the bench as the Mavericks' sixth man during the 2022-23 campaign. But if winning is the top priority ahead of his eighth season in the league, Wood should not have a problem adjusting in Dallas. 

The Houston Rockets made their first noteworthy move of the summer by sending Wood to the Mavericks in June. The Rockets received a late first-round pick in the 2022 NBA Draft and several players back in return.

Wood is in the best situation of his career. But his jettison from Houston forces him to be removed from the stewardship of coach Stephen Silas.

"I love Silas," Wood said. "He was always good to me. He was an honest man and coach — especially on the court. I loved playing for him."  

Since working with Silas after joining the Rockets in 2020, Wood has established himself as one of the finest big men in the league following a turbulent start to his NBA career.

While appearing in a career-best 68 games during the 2021-22 campaign, Wood notched 17.9 points on 50.1 percent shooting from the field, to go along with 10.1 rebounds and a block.

"This will be a huge opportunity for me," Wood said. "After you lose a certain number of times, you start to get motivated to win. Even when I was with Houston, my main goal was to try and win as many games as possible. I am more motivated than I've been before because I want to win."

Wood was arguably the Rockets' best player during the early stages of a rebuild after averaging 19.1 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks across 109 games. But despite Wood's near all-star production, Houston registered 37 wins over the previous two seasons. 

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