#10. Christian Wood
Christian Wood only saw action in 21 games during the 2018-19 season, but, luckily for Wood in this case, one of those games happened to be against the Atlanta Hawks – who have notoriously bad defense.
As such, Wood capital-w “went off” against the Hawks to the tune of a mammoth game on both ends of the court. Though Wood only played 8 games with the New Orleans Pelicans, he made his presence felt and thoroughly made the Milwaukee Bucks look silly for cutting him loose mid-season.
After being picked up off waivers by New Orleans, Wood was one of the team’s most consistent contributors, producing 16.9 points per game, 7.9 rebounds per game, 1.3 blocks per game and an excellent 61.3 percent true shooting clip in only 23.6 minutes per contest, per Basketball Reference.
Beyond that, Wood shot a lofty 72 percent at the rim with Pels per Cleaning the Glass, which was third on the team behind only Wesley Johnson and Jrue Holiday – and surprisingly ahead of superstar Anthony Davis.
On defense, Wood’s block and steal rates were in the 81st and 83rd percentile, respectively per Cleaning the Glass, and his rebounding numbers on offense and defense convey an all-around impactful player that could help the Atlanta Hawks on both ends.
With the requisite age (24 in September) and length for the Hawks (6-foot-10, 7-foot-3 wingspan), Wood would make for an excellent low-cost flyer in free agency for the Atlanta Hawks.