N/P: Christian Wood

[new city champ]

Who was paying Wood even $14 million in 2019? The Pels had plenty of leverage to sign him near league minimum with a team option for this year. Wood was just looking to stick on an NBA roster when the Pels cut him. I thought he was well worth a flyer just based on his 8-game tryout with us...

[PELICANSFAN]

So you contend, that an undrafted free agent who never made any real money in the NBA would have scoffed at a 14MM, two year contract and gambled on himself. Okay, that makes sense. Hindsight LMAO!!!

You are the one who is trying to instill hindsight. He was a fringe NBA player who was already signed on a league minimum deal. Miller was signed to the 2 year/$14 million deal to make him a trade chip that season. I guess we could have cut Wood and re-signed him to that deal instead of Miller, but do not recall the timing of his demand to be released. He did not feel he was going to get any playing time and he wanted to go somewhere of his choosing to show his worth. If he would have agreed to be released and re-sign that deal, he would have gotten $7 million guaranteed (the 2nd year was non-guaranteed) and been traded wherever the Pelicans chose. His concern was that with the Pels, he would not leave the bench much. It is all pretty irrelevant since the team was concerned about his character and probably did not want to invest in him anyway.

[pelafanatic]

I think the Pels would have been more comfortable keeping Wood around had they not been bringing in 3 rookies. Wood was not good enough at that time to make up for his immaturity. They may have been more comfortable with it if SGA was in the building instead of Gentry as well.

While Jah was not good when on the floor, he was a tremendous leader off the floor that the young guys looked up to. He taught them how to be professional and how to work.

The FO knew that they weren't keeping Wood past the season, so they went with the guy they knew would set a great example instead of the guy who was a poor locker room presence. It's as simple as that. There's no reason to harp on it. This is not conjecture but obviously not really common knowledge as well. Everyone in the league knows about Wood's issues, though. The Rockets had their backs against the wall with Harden, so they needed to take a chance on his skillset

[pelafanatic]

This may come as a surprise to some folks on here, but NAW and Jax work their butts off. Jah deserves some credit for that. He knew his role was to work as a mentor with those dudes, and he did a fantastic job of it, specifically as a 24 year old young vet. It's the main reason he got another gig so quickly with the Pistons

[As I See It]

You are the one who is trying to instill hindsight. He was a fringe NBA player who was already signed on a league minimum deal. Miller was signed to the 2 year/$14 million deal to make him a trade chip that season. I guess we could have cut Wood and re-signed him to that deal instead of Miller, but do not recall the timing of his demand to be released. He did not feel he was going to get any playing time and he wanted to go somewhere of his choosing to show his worth. If he would have agreed to be released and re-sign that deal, he would have gotten $7 million guaranteed (the 2nd year was non-guaranteed) and been traded wherever the Pelicans chose. His concern was that with the Pels, he would not leave the bench much. It is all pretty irrelevant since the team was concerned about his character and probably did not want to invest in him anyway.

When he was let go, I said it was mistake....no hindsight, here, pal. I said back then, he would be a perfect complement to ZW and that Miller's money would have been better spent on him (and this was before Miller blew out his Achilles). I know you have the means to look it up, so please do.

But to your point. You'd have us believe, that a guy, who NEVER made any money in the NBA would turn down 7MM a year - two year contract in favor of going through waivers with the risk of being picked up by somebody and playing for the league minimum (which is exactly what happened) over pocketing a sure 7MM in 2019-20? Further, he could have been buried on Detroit's bench behind Drummond, Griffin and Duombouya (it was possible back then). Given that possibility, would he have been any better position this year than last?

Kindly don't paint the hindsight label on me....it doesn't fit.

I do hope, for your sake, that you have a financial counselor to lean on.