{"id":76530,"date":"2024-05-07T13:50:58","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T17:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=76530"},"modified":"2024-05-07T13:50:58","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T17:50:58","slug":"key-lakers-free-agent-decides-on-player-option-christian-wood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/07\/key-lakers-free-agent-decides-on-player-option-christian-wood\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Lakers Frontcourt Member Decides on Player Option"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After falling in the first round and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/03\/lakers-fire-darvin-ham-after-two-years-at-the-helm\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">firing their head coach shortly after<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Lakers fans received some news regarding center <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/woodch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christian Wood<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and his future with the organization<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Key Lakers Frontcourt Member Decides on Player Option<\/h2>\n<h3><b>Christian Wood\u2019s Decision<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 28-year-old Wood has decided to return to the purple and gold by exercising his one-year, $3 million Player Option, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeAScotto\/status\/1787878742859169955\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">according to Mike Scotto of HoopsHype<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The main backup to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anthony Davis<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Wood improved the Lakers\u2019 depth at center <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2023\/09\/06\/nba-news-los-angeles-lakers-sign-christian-wood\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">when he was first signed in September<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In 50 games (one start), he averaged nearly seven points, five rebounds and one assist per game on .466\/.307\/.702 splits. His production off the bench was notable, whether it was logging <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/v6lCXsi4F00?si=rlfwXvNMlUe-n5Rf\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">16 points and eight rebounds in an In-Season Tournament win over Utah<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lakersnation.com\/lakers-news-lebron-james-jokes-christian-wood-only-cares-about-buckets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">efficient 14-point outing on 50% shooting against Toronto<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though his decision is now official, Wood raised some speculation with a recent post on X\/Twitter:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Loved my first year playing for my Hometown team, I Wish I wasn\u2019t hurt majority of the season, But all in all it was a dream come True for me.. I will be better and 100% healthy next season .<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; 35 (@Chriswood_5) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Chriswood_5\/status\/1786483635266134243?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><b>Implications for the Lakers<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christian Wood\u2019s return and his promise to remain healthy are encouraging signs for the Lakers and their fans. The veteran provided a spark off the bench and increased the Lakers\u2019 presence in the paint. Though his scoring was inconsistent, Wood\u2019s defense and rebounding were critical for the team throughout the season, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/T_jriC1PlXE?si=GXdjDLjizsSVs4Zi\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">as was the case against the Phoenix Suns<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at the beginning of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Wood mentioned, his health will be vital for the Lakers next season. Though Davis played a career-best 76 games this year, part of his success can be attributed to the solid play of Wood off the bench. The backup center made the most of his minutes so Davis wouldn\u2019t have to overcompensate for a lack of production from his backups. Wood\u2019s ability to step up when called upon was huge for LA last season, and he\u2019ll look to build on that trend when October comes around.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But despite Wood\u2019s decision, don\u2019t assume the Lakers are done looking at frontcourt free agents. The Lakers\u2019 lack of size against Denver\u2014compared to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CoachJoe824\/status\/1787674717769662964\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the Timberwolves\u2019 abundance of it now<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014emphasizes the need for a legitimate starting center next to Davis and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LeBron James<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. So, Wood may still hang onto his backup role, but it may not necessarily be for AD. Whether it\u2019s through a trade or free agency, more help may be on the way for the Lakers\u2019 depth in the middle. Through it all, Wood should remain a prominent part of the next head coach\u2019s rotation, given his value on both ends of the floor.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After falling in the first round and firing their head coach shortly after, Lakers fans received some news regarding center Christian Wood\u00a0and his future with the organization. Key Lakers Frontcourt Member Decides on Player Option Christian Wood\u2019s Decision The 28-year-old Wood has decided to return to the purple and gold by exercising his one-year, $3 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":76531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,62,3],"tags":[49059,240,3145,38,297],"class_list":["post-76530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","category-news","tag-2024-nba-free-agents","tag-anthony-davis","tag-christian-wood","tag-lebron-james","tag-nba-free-agency"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}