The Los Angeles Lakers were hit by the injury bug hard at the start of the season as Christian Wood and Jarred Vanderbilt have notably yet to make their 2024-25 debuts.
Coming off knee surgery last season, Wood appeared ready to go before training camp although he then suffered a setback and had to get another surgery done. Because of that, he was ruled out for at least four more weeks in the middle of November.
That four weeks has passed and it appears Wood is finally making some progress as head coach JJ Redick outlined the next steps for the big man.
“With Christian, he continues to progress,” Redick said after practice on Tuesday. “We don’t have necessarily a set date for his return to play with us, but the progress has been good. He’s gonna stay back and do live against the coaching associates while we’re in Sacramento, which is a big step forward for him.”
Wood progressing to live work is a big step, but he still is not expected to travel with the team on their upcoming road trip.
“He’s not coming with us to Sacramento, nor is Vando. They will be doing their rehab and court work here,” Redick added.
Redick further expanded on what Wood is able to do on the court and the progress he is making.
“He’s doing more on the court with obviously just individual work. His AlterG stuff, he’s getting to 95%, 100% on the AlterG. So again, he’s making progress and it’s looking like it’ll be soon barring any setback that he’s be back with us.”
It remains to be seen when Wood will be able to return to game action for the Lakers, but this is the biggest step in his recovery so far so it could be just around the corner. That would be a big boost for L.A., who has been shorthanded in the frontcourt all year.
Anthony Davis believes defense is key for Lakers
With Christian Wood, Jaxson Hayes and Jarred Vanderbilt all out, Anthony Davis has essentially needed to anchor the Lakers’ defense by himself. After the team struggled on that end of the floor for weeks, they finally have started making some progress and Davis believes being solid defensively is the key to their success moving forward.
“Just playing hard,” Davis added. “We’re playing physical on the string, we’re flying around. We’re covering for each other. Once we do those things, it makes it easier for us defensively to get in the ball, to rebound, to communicate when you know you have protection if you get beat or blow by, closeout, whatever it is. So when we’re on the string, and we’re together, we’re a pretty good defensive team.”
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