UNLV sophomore Wood declaring for NBA Draft

By Taylor Bern

Wednesday, April 22, 2015 | 8:15 p.m.

What seemed like a foregone conclusion at the end of the regular season took longer than expected, but sophomore forward Christian Wood’s decision is still the same. Contrary to a report from Wednesday afternoon, Wood will leave UNLV early and enter June’s NBA Draft.

“I want to thank Vegas for the four years that they gave me out here,” Wood said in an announcement video he tweeted out tonight. “That being said, I’m entering my name into the 2015 NBA Draft because I think it’s best for me and my family.”

Wood played for two years at Findlay Prep before becoming a Rebel. He teased out his decision over the past month, including on Tuesday posting a photoshopped poster featuring himself in the foreground of a front court also featuring incoming freshman Stephen Zimmerman, Goodluck Okonoboh and Ben Carter. A day later, he's gone.

As a sophomore, Wood averaged 10.3 rebounds, 15.7 points and 2.7 blocks per game, which ranked first, second and second on the team, respectively. Overall he used his size much better than as a freshman, with Wood improving his effective field goal percentage (45.7 to 53.1) and percentage of shots taken at the rim (35.9 to 43.4) while playing a team-high 32.7 minutes per game.

Shams Charania, a reporter for RealGM, tweeted Wednesday afternoon that Wood was returning to school. A couple of UNLV and Mountain West related sites ran with the story, but after Wood tweeted his video Charania deleted his tweet.

Projected as a late first-round draft pick, conversations throughout the season and some lethargic play indicated that Wood would leave for the NBA. But while injured freshman Rashad Vaughn, who’s projected to go in the second round, announced his decision in early April, Wood was taking his time as Sunday’s deadline neared.

It’s reminiscent of last off-season, when junior Roscoe Smith declared very quickly after the season while junior Khem Birch, who probably would have been the preseason Mountain West Player of the Year, waited until April 24 before announcing his departure. Both Birch and Smith went undrafted but had productive seasons in the D-League, where Birch was named to the all-defensive and first-team all-rookie teams while Smith was a third-team all-rookie selection.

Like Birch, Wood probably would have been the league’s best or at least most established player coming into the year, and with ample pieces throughout the roster it’s possible he could have improved his draft stock. NBADraft.net has Wood at No. 26 and ESPN has him at No. 28.

Of course, it’s also possible that Wood wouldn’t have improved his position at all or even ended up lower. Three years ago forward Mike Moser returned, in part, to improve his status. An elbow injury derailed his junior season and Moser then used a grad transfer to finish at Oregon before beginning a career overseas (he currently plays in Lithuania).

Even without injury, there are several cases of a player simply regressing or of another year’s worth of film hurting his standing in the eyes of general managers and scouts. It’s an inexact science, and Wood has decided to test out his formula sooner than later.

His departure leaves UNLV with three remaining scholarships to go with incoming freshmen Stephen Zimmerman, Derrick Jones and Jalen Poyser. That group is already rated as one of the 10 or 15 best classes in the country so anything the Rebels add will only solidify that standing.

Transfer guards Nigel Williams-Goss and Ike Nwamu were on campus for official visits last weekend and forward Justin Jackson, a class of 2016 commit at Findlay Prep, could still decide to reclassify to 2015.

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.