One of the final moves the Los Angeles Lakers made to cap off their summer was bringing in Christian Wood on a veteran minimum contract. With Wood having little to no market, he signed with L.A. to rehab his value and cash in on a bigger contract next summer.
While the offensive talent that Wood possesses is impressive as a center, it has not been an ideal start for him wearing the purple and gold. With adapting to a bench role, playing spot minutes and even falling out of the rotation, it would’ve been easy for Wood to check out on the team.
However, he has been impactful since being re-inserted into the rotation, specifically the last four games. After chipping in 14 points and nine rebounds in the Lakers’ recent win against the Toronto Raptors, LeBron James joked that Wood only cares about getting himself a bucket.
“That man only care about a bucket. When he gets in rhythm and he knows he going to play, C-Wood care about buckets. That’s C-Wood, alright? He did a good job,” James said. “He does a good job of also rebounding for us. But I just think it’s a rhythm thing for our team. But if you ask C-Wood, C-Wood is all about a bucket.”
This re-emergence of Wood is great for L.A. as when Anthony Davis rests, the team tends to suffer. For the 28-year-old to provide strong rebounding and an offensive spark in the non-Davis will be worth monitoring for games to come. Wood responded to James admitting that he does love getting buckets.
“I do love my buckets (laughs). I do love buckets,” Wood said. “This guy’s hilarious. Just shooting it with confidence, man.”
It is good to see Wood in high spirits despite the recent struggles of trying to get back in the rotation. But his confidence is indeed climbing as his shooting is finally coming around. In the last 10 games, the big man is averaging 8.3 points, 5.3 rebounds on 53.5% from the field and 52.6% from 3-point range.
Defense is something that head coach Darvin Ham hangs his hat on, but the Lakers’ offense has ranked in the bottom half of the league and needed to see some better performances. Wood is capable of adding some firepower to the offense and if he is shooting with confidence, it can go a long way on alleviating pressure off James and Davis.
Christian Wood credits Darvin Ham for ignoring criticism
This is the first time since the In-Season Tournament that the Lakers have picked up consecutive wins, proving how ugly things got as of late. Ham found himself in some rumors about a potential firing, but Wood credited him for ignoring those reports criticizing his coaching.
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