I think the comparison between Wood and Ayton is a decent one. Their stats certainly look similar from a distance.
Rebounding - Ayton is better but only by about 4-5% on contested rebounds, etc. Wood was also asked to be five-out a lot which might have hurt Wood's numbers.
Defense - this one is clear and decisive. Ayton plays within a fairly tight team defense. He is a top-15 defensive anchor. Wood is a good player but he's just never been coached to be a defensive anchor. I understand why-- he rotates between PF and C and he's been on so many teams he's never developed a team defense. The biggest problem other than rebounding was help defense and Wood was statistically one of the worst.
3pt shooting - if Ayton would get the same role here, he is a much inferior 3pt shooter (30% vs. 37%)
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