Injuries plague every NBA team, but the Los Angeles Lakers suffered from untimely absences from a number of rotation players last year. Now heading into a new season, L.A. was hoping to start on the right foot with a healthy roster.
Unfortunately, the two players that are still sidelined are Christian Wood and Jarred Vanderbilt. Notably for Wood, he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee a few weeks before training camp and should miss the start of the season.
This injury hurts due to the Lakers center room being particularly thin behind Anthony Davis. That leaves Jaxson Hayes primed for backup minutes until Wood returns.
Despite not being defensive big men, Hayes and Wood offer different skillsets depending on what head coach JJ Redick wants. Last year, Wood was asked to play defense and crash the glass, which was not a role he has been accustomed to in his career.
But after speaking with head coach JJ Redick, Wood expects to get back to his previous role of being a scorer this season.
“He’s a good conversationalist, man,” Wood said. “He’s very personable and it helps that he was a player in this league. In terms of what my role is, he told me, last year it was asked of my to play defense and rebound, they didn’t really need me to score or attack mismatches as much. This year he told me he wants me to play like I was in Houston and Dallas. Attack mismatches, shoot a lot of 3s and if I have like a bigger guy on my, take him off the dribble. If I have a smaller guy on me then post up and when I come back try and play around Anthony Davis for floor spacing.”
When he makes his eventual return, the Long Beach native should become a more vital bench piece returning to his traditional role as a floor-spacing center. That is what made Wood successful during his time with the Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks before coming to the Lakers.
In 50 games last season, Wood struggled from 3-point range, shooting just 30.7%. He is a career 37.2% shooter from deep though so the Lakers and Redick will be hoping he can get back to that.
But regardless, when Davis gets rest, the team struggles mightily defensively so Wood will still need to contribute on that end of the floor.
Christian Wood gives update on injured knee
When news broke about Christie Wood getting surgery, many pondered why he waited this long to tend to his injured knee. But, the Lakers center provided an update on his injury, which set the record straight that is was a new injury that required attention.
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