Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic receives tons of reward from NBA analysts, consultants, and followers, and rightfully so. He’s unquestionably a candidate for NBA MVP after placing collectively some actually spectacular performances early within the season.
Nonetheless, there’s one other participant on the Mavericks who’s been flying underneath the radar from a lot of the speak on the nationwide degree and that’s the crew’s large offseason acquisition, Christian Wooden.
The undrafted sixth-year professional out of UNLV is placing up starter-level numbers within the first few video games of the common season for the Dallas Mavericks, regardless of coming off the bench.
Is Dallas Mavericks ahead Christian Wooden an early candidate for NBA Sixth Man of the Yr?
Kidd shocked NBA followers when he revealed he supposed to bring Wood off the bench for the Dallas Mavericks this season in the course of the crew’s media day, together with Wooden himself. Christian Wooden apparently didn’t understand he can be coming off the bench when the Mavericks unloaded a slew of bench gamers and a first-round draft choose to get him out of Houston and right into a Mavericks jersey.
Whether or not he’s utilizing the bench as a motivator or if it is a chess-not-checkers transfer from Kidd, it appears to be understanding for each the participant and the crew.
Wooden has been excellent off the bench, placing up similar numbers to what Los Angeles Lakers ahead Anthony Davis is doing this season. For the Lakers, Davis is averaging 24 factors, 9.5 rebounds, and a pair of assists in 35.1 minutes per recreation. He’s sitting at -8.8 in plus/minus, too.
For the Mavericks, Wooden is averaging 24.3 factors, 8.7 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 26.3 minutes per recreation. He’s been an enormous enhance for Dallas as a +13 in plus/minus. That is significantly spectacular when you think about Wooden has been a starter for the previous two seasons and is adjusting to a brand new position with a brand new crew.
His efficiency, although it’s a small pattern dimension, ought to catapult him to the highest of the NBA Sixth Man of the Yr award discussions as soon as we get somewhat additional alongside within the season. To not point out, the league will probably have a contemporary race for the award this 12 months as earlier winners Tyler Herro and Jordan Clarkson have transitioned into beginning roles for his or her respective groups, the Miami Warmth and the Utah Jazz.
Nobody within the NBA is placing up numbers like Wooden is doing whereas coming off the bench proper now. The closest a participant involves attaining comparable outcomes as Christian Wooden is Bennedict Mathurin of the Indiana Pacers.
The rookie guard is placing up big numbers for the rebuilding Pacers, averaging practically 21 factors and 5 rebounds per recreation in 27.6 minutes per recreation. Seeing Mathurin, the No. 6 general choose from the 2022 NBA Draft, within the NBA Sixth Man of the Yr dialog can be uncommon. There’s solely been one rookie to win the league-wide award for many excellent bench participant, and that was Chicago’s Ben Gordon, who achieved the feat within the 2004-05 season. Gordon averaged 15.1 factors per recreation whereas capturing 41% from the sector as a rookie out of UConn.
However there’s nonetheless a reasonably large hole between Mathurin and Wooden. Both manner, we’re in uncharted waters as no Dallas Mavericks participant has ever averaged greater than 20 factors per recreation off the bench in a season.
The race for NBA Sixth Man of the Yr is already heating up, giving followers one more interesting storyline to keep watch over because the 2022-23 season strikes ahead.
