Christian Wood is going to be a thorn in the San Antonio Spurs side

Christian Wood dominated the San Antonio Spurs in their preseason finale

This time last year Christian Wood was still trying to solidify his place in the Detroit Pistons. Now, after signing a $41 million dollar deal with the Houston Rockets, he’s once again tearing up the San Antonio Spurs.

Wood made his Rockets debut last night in the Spurs’ final preseason game of 2021. His performance was eerily similar to the beatdown he dropped on the Spurs in early December of last year.

He tore through the San Antonio defense on Thursday. His 27 point, 10 rebound night seemed effortless at times. The strong debut was a painful reminder to Spurs fans of what we wanted so much and what we’re going to have to deal with on a regular basis over the next three years.

Instead of signing him, San Antonio Spurs must contend with Christian Wood

A few months ago when we were thinking about which free agents we wanted the San Antonio Spurs to pursue during the 2020 offseason, Wood was near the top of our list.

Unfortunately, unless the Spurs traded DeMar DeRozan and declined to bring back Jakob Poeltl there was a slim chance that Wood was going to end up wearing a Spurs uniform. But why did he have to sign with the Rockets?

In his first game against San Antonio in a Rockets uniform, Wood was simply too fast for Poeltl and LaMarcus Aldridge and too strong for Rudy Gay. He’s a growing force who is just coming into his own and now he’s in the same division as the Spurs.

Wood’s impressive performance led his new teammate Eric Gordon to compare him to Anthony Davis. Gordon’s didn’t put Wood on the same level as the four-time All-NBA talent but he compared their similar abilities to give teams problems on the perimeter as well as near the rim.

James Harden might not be in Houston much longer so a situation where San Antonio has to gameplan for a team featuring Wood and someone like Ben Simmons could be in the Spurs’ future. A team centered around those two wildly talented forwards would present a whole new set of headaches that I simply don’t want to think about right now.

The San Antonio Spurs missing out on Christian Wood was going to a bummer no matter who he ended up signing with. The fact that he ended up with Houston and is going to be a thorn in the side of the Spurs for the next three years is just grinding salt into the wound.