Houston Rockets: 3 Realistic Trades of Christian Wood

The Houston Rockets’ rebuild is off to an excellent start. Their four first-round picks from the 2021 NBA Draft are either right on schedule or ahead of schedule. Jalen Green continues to improve, Alperen Sengun looks like a future All-Star, Josh Christopher clearly belongs in the NBA as a rookie, and Usman Garuba, in limited time, looks a future defensive stalwart. 

On the margins, Jae’Sean Tate looks primed to be an All-World rotation piece for the next half-decade, Garrison Mathews is a useful NBA player, and Kenyon Martin Jr continues to excel as a spark-plug off the bench. 

While Eric Gordon looks likely to be headed to greener pastures before the trade deadline, the Rockets have one other veteran who may garner some serious interest, Christian Wood. 

Christian Wood’s trade value has receded since the offseason. He has seen his scoring and efficiency drop this season, and his disinterest in defending this season has done the Rockets no favors. He remains a talented offensive player, but right now he’ll likely only fetch one first-round pick and another marginally interesting young player. 

If you scour the internet, Christain Wood pops up in a multitude of fake trades. Most of them are garbage. They either completely overrate Wood’s trade value, or they overvalue a young unproven player’s NBA ability.

The Rockets may very well move Wood, but fans need to understand what a realistic trade would look like. These are three realistic trades of Christian Wood.