SEPTEMBER 6: Wood is officially a Laker, the team announced (Twitter link via Jovan Buha of The Athletic).
SEPTEMBER 5: Unrestricted free agent Christian Wood has agreed to a two-year contract with the Lakers, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. The second year includes a player option.
The Lakers’ interest in Wood was reported weeks ago and now the two parties have finally come to an agreement. Wood and the Mavericks failed to reach an extension agreement last season and Wood wound up on the open market. However, he didn’t get the type of offers normally conveyed to players who averaged 16.6 points and 7.3 rebounds during their walk year.
He had to settle for the veteran’s minimum, which is all the Lakers could offer. As ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (Twitter link), Wood will make $2,709,849 this upcoming season and $3,036,040 in 2024/25, if he doesn’t opt out.
Wood gives the Lakers 14 players with guaranteed contracts and there’s a good chance they’ll leave the other roster spot open to maintain roster and financial flexibility.
Los Angeles already looked solid in the frontcourt and the addition of Wood gives the Lakers plenty of quality depth. He joins Anthony Davis, Jarred Vanderbilt, Jaxson Hayes and Rui Hachimura at the power forward and center spots. LeBron James and Taurean Prince could also see minutes at the ‘4’ position.
Wood appeared in 67 games, including 17 starts, in his lone season with the Mavericks. He was acquired in an offseason deal from Houston.
Wood put up big numbers during his two seasons with the Rockets, including a career-high 21.o points per game during the 202o/21 season. He signed a three-year, $41MM contact with Houston in 2020 after a breakout season with Detroit.
The Lakers will be the eighth NBA franchise on Wood’s resume.
Oh boy….
Not a game changer by all means but a nice pickup. Good depth at the 5
Going to join his 8th team in 9 years so dude has some big flaws. Ok defense but he must be bad in the locker room.
Last year, Wood was terrible defensively. J-Kidd could not play him at times because Wood did not know his assignments and provided very little effort on the defensive end. He just hangs out under the basket, not guarding anyone, hoping to grab the rebound. When he tries, he is constantly late on switches and stays out of position, which lead to a ton of easy buckets for opposing teams. Offensively, he is very nice, especially coming off the bench. He can stretch the floor and throw down some dunks. But overall, the bad outweighed the good in Dallas.
Defense is commitment, desire and effort. Hopefully he will find that in purple and gold
Adding wood at this time is the factual equivalent of adding a Russ Westbrook ( my team ) ! No chance whatsoever it’s a game changer but could surprise
Christian Wood is from Long Beach, California so this is a homecoming for him. He’s been labeled a defensive liability but I think Darvin Ham will make him better on the less glamorous side of the ball. With D’Angelo Russell being the starting Point Guard and not a good defensive player they definitely need to have Christian Wood come off the bench.
September?
League ain’t too high on him.
The league isn’t too high on bigs unless they are a super star big like Embid, Giannis, AD , Embid or Jokic it feels like. He’s not a bad player at all. I do think he wanted more than what teams wanted to offer him which led to him being on the market a lot longer than he wanted to be. Maybe I’m wrong. Just from what I read he it sounded like he wanted more money than teams could offer him and had to settle for the vet minimum with the Lakers. Lucky for them
This is a great pick up by Rob. He did a nice job with this roster this offseason. He can start at center and slide AD to the 4 where AD is more comfortable or come off the bench plus if AD gets hurt they now have a very solid back up to take over until he’s back which seems likely with his injury history. This isn’t a star power player but still adding someone who can give you 17 points and 7 rebounds in 26 mins s night is good and he fits better with the Lakers than he ever did with the Mavs.
I dont get why they needed another big…again, but I guess they needed to make sure they have at least 5-7 5s for a 3rd year in a row
I guess he does give them the floor spacing most of the others dont, but not sure its necessary unless they have a couple of injuries
His defense is what probably reduced his value a lot
Obviously…also, he has ball stopper tendencies sometimes, but also, there are very limited roster spots in the league for bigs that dont do certain things, unless apparently you play for the Lakers or Dallas the last few years, so there are always going to be bigs that dont get signed that arguably would be in the league if there were a couple of more teams
Now sign Dwight
I really like this pick up.
Excellent value first of all.
He just averaged 16.5 points, 7 boards and a couple assists per game on a poor season and you got him for 2mil.
Secondly there’s not many PF’s/C’s that have a career average of 38% from 3. Just for reference he shoots 3’s at a better clip than Jayson Tatum, Damien Lillard, Jamal Murray and Eric Gordon.
I’m not saying he pushes them over the top or that he’s going to be an all star but he is a solid addition. Even with a lack of defence he’s going to be more than useful.
I think starting the season it’ll be Dlo Reaves LBJ Vanderbilt and AD. But Vanderbilt doesn’t offer enough offensively and I think DLo’s inconsistency will mean they trust Reaves with the ball more and he might get dropped into the second unit like what happened in the playoffs.
In which case they eventually turn to Gabe Vincent, Reaves, LBJ, AD and Wood as their starters. Vincent upgrades the perimeter defence and I think because of his work rate will fit in well with LBJ. Reaves them gets greater playmaking responsibility. Wood then gets added to the starters to give them better floor spacing while his lack of top tier defence is kinda covered by having AD next to him.
Off the bench Dlo then can do his thing, with Christie, Prince, Vanderbilt and Hachimura.
Hayes and Reddish will have to really work to get their minutes.
Lakers would still be fat from perfect but I think that would make them a better side and it’s what I could see happening. AD wants to be the 4 and Wood wants to be the 5. AD is an elite defender and Wood needs help on defence. AD likes to work inside the arc but can shoot it, Wood spaces the floor but can get buckets inside too. It’s a solid pairing and I’m glad they finally came to terms and sorted a deal.
Mike Dunleavy needs to be fired! Stupid useless person who calls himself a GM
RELAX! You don’t think the warriors did their research? Guy is just signing now after averaging 17&7. That should tell you something right there.
7 teams have already kicked him to the curb and 22 others had no interest.
Either tells you that as a rookie GM he is elite at what he does or over his head. No one knows for sure
Personally I think Mike Dunleavy has done a fantastic job so far. Really great job and corrected some mistakes Bob Myers made.
Agree with that. warriors do not need a offensive low IQ big man. They need a high IQ defensive big man. Somebody that can defend another big man. Wood is just a tall stick that can’t move
Can’t move ? He was rated #1 in pnr in the entire league last year
It’s wild to me that a guy who avg 17&7 is getting picked up 3 weeks before training camp. I have yet to see this giy play like a role player , so it will be interested to see how he approaches this season. Maybe him and AD will be great or it can be like another Andre Drummond situation.
Lakers did have a good offseason. Wood did look out of sorts in Dallas. It is easier to score when you play for a bottom feeder team. Lakers will be in the mix in the west.
He’s a nice mid-season trade chip for LeGM
Wood is a good fit for them, at least in terms of skill-set (he’ll fit with either AD or Vandy), and the locker room having a strong veteran presence that likely won’t tolerate some of his attention span issues. Key is finding a consistent role for him (guys like him tend to wander when used in sound bites).
Probably won’t end well once Wood becomes unhappy he isn’t playing the minutes he expects to play or doesn’t have the role he believes he deserves (since he thinks he’s an elite player and all), and that’s on top of the deplorable defensive habits and ball-stopping tendancies. With that said, at that price you can’t really complain. If it doesn’t work out you just move on.
It’s a good pickup. If they can get him to play at 100% effort. He’s bee all about a long term deal. Since he left Pistons. He plays when he wants. And is all about himself. If there is anyone that can help THAT. It’s LeBron James greatest team player ever. For the minimum it’s a good gamble.
If he sees more than 10 minutes a night Lakers are losing. Wood is horrible on defense not even LeBron can help him there now that Lebron is slowing down on defense.
The Los Angeles Lakers made some really nice moves this offseason and the only thing I know for sure is that LeBron James Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves will be in the starting lineup.
Now my 1st question is do Anthony Davis starts at Power Forward or Center?
If he starts at Power Forward then I envision Jaxson Hayes starting at Center.
If he starts at Center then I can see either Rui Hachimura or Jarred Vanderbilt starting at Power Forward.
My second question is who wins the starting position at Point Guard? D’Angelo Russell or Gabe Vincent?
Christian Wood is going to come off the bench for the Los Angeles Lakers. I’m not sure how big of a role he will play with the Los Angeles Lakers being so deep!
Jarred Vanderbilt is one of the main reasons the Lakers turned their season around last year because of his defensive intensity. He can guard four positions at a high level. I hope he don’t get lost in the shuffle. I really like his game. He just needs to be able to knock down that short corner three with consistency.
I’m also excited to see Taurean Prince Cam Reddish and Max Christie this upcoming season.
Lebron is going to play more 4
Rui more 3 and vando will be guarding 2 s
I think it’s a good chance for both sides…
Having AD to learn from and have minutes available when AD sits could be the perfect opportunity for Wood to lock in…
The Lakers have a lot of depth in case of a lot of street clothes time…
Now he can’t see the floor.