Pelicans figuring out what they have in Christian Wood as season ends

With nothing left to play for this season, the New Orleans Pelicans seem to be running Christian Wood through the gauntlet to see what he can really do.

With their playoff hopes fading into nothingness in the rear-view mirror, the New Orleans Pelicans have gone all-in on testing out some of their question marks on the roster to see if they are worthy of being brought back next season. One such question mark is former G-League stud Christian Wood, who is proving so far to be much more of an exclamation point if we’re keeping the punctuation references going here.

There’s no reason not to give Christian Wood a bunch of playing time in the frontcourt with Anthony Davis missing so much action recently, and that’s exactly what the New Orleans Pelicans have been doing for the last handful of games. He’s seen 27, 28, and 32 minutes in his last three contests with the Pelicans, which has given us a nice glimpse at his potential in the NBA. Can his dominance carry over from the G-League?

So far, yes. He’s shooting a solid 61-ish percent from the field in this stretch, all while putting up a very nice 21 points per game. He’s been a force on defense as well, averaging 2.67 blocks, 2.3 steals, and almost 10 boards per game in these three examples. These are starting center-type numbers, and while it’s clearly premature to hand that title over to Wood going into next year, New Orleans is surely encouraged by what they’ve seen to this point from the young big.

Last night against the Lakers, Christian Wood received the most minutes on the entire New Orleans Pelicans roster, so it’s clear that the Front Office and coaching staff truly are testing out everything he’s capable of right now. His plus/minus was terrible in this game, but so was pretty much everyone’s. Wood got up the second most shots of anyone on the team as well, again pointing to the Pels getting a nice, extended test drive out of him.

It’s important for the New Orleans Pelicans to not let these final games in the 2018-2019 campaign go to waste. Figuring out what they truly have in Christian Wood is a great use of the team’s time. So far, it’s looking more and more like the Pelicans might have snagged a diamond in the rough with this acquisition. All signs are pointing towards the inclusion of Wood in the rotation as the team rebuilds this summer.