{"id":92368,"date":"2024-08-26T09:30:39","date_gmt":"2024-08-26T13:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=92368"},"modified":"2024-08-25T21:02:41","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T01:02:41","slug":"lakers-big-man-christian-wood-issues-bold-message-to-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/26\/lakers-big-man-christian-wood-issues-bold-message-to-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Big Man Issues Bold Message to Fans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lakers\u2019 supporting cast around <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anthony Davis<\/a> was hampered by injuries last year. Among those who spent part of the season on the sidelines was backup 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><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Now entering his ninth season in the league, the 28-year-old big man sent out a message to Laker fans\u2014and seemingly the rest of the NBA\u2014over the weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Lakers Big Man Issues Bold Message to Fans<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Christian Wood\u2019s Message<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Saturday, Aug. 24, <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ClutchPoints\/status\/1827523007511990775\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wood posted the following statement<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to his Instagram story:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI&#8217;m back yall ..and l&#8217;m coming back next season with a vengeance.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This proclamation comes months after Wood played 50 games before going down with a knee injury that <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/lakers-christian-wood-surgery\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">eventually required surgery<\/a>. Despite a notable decrease in production, Wood played his role well enough, averaging 6.9 points, 5.1 rebounds, one assist and 0.7 blocks per game. He also shot 46.6% from the field, 30.7% from three and 70.2% from the free-throw line.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wood\u2019s notable games include a 17-point, eight-rebound performance against the Spurs on Dec. 15, 2023, as well as a double-double of ten points and eleven rebounds against the Clippers on Nov. 1, 2023. However, Wood\u2019s final game of the season was forgettable, to say the least\u2014two points, four rebounds and one assist in 16 minutes against the Jazz on Valentine\u2019s Day. All in all, Wood\u2019s campaign is a far cry from his lone season with the Dallas Mavericks (2022-23), when he averaged 16 points and seven rebounds and <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/awards\/awards_2023.html#all_smoy\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">finished top-ten in Sixth Man of the Year voting<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Wood\u2019s Importance to the Lakers<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite the unfortunate end to the season, Wood remains a key piece of the Lakers bench heading into a new era under head coach <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/redicjj01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">JJ Redick<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wood\u2019s latest claim comes months after a <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/lakersnation.com\/christian-wood-loved-first-season-with-lakers-vows-to-stay-healthy-in-2024-25\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">similar statement posted to X (formerly Twitter) in May<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/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<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wood proceeded to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/07\/key-lakers-free-agent-decides-on-player-option-christian-wood\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">accept his Player Option<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> just two days after posting those remarks. His recent story appears to reaffirm his commitment to the franchise, where he may play a pivotal role in next year&#8217;s rotation.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Backup Center Dilemma<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With the Lakers unable to add to the backup center spot in free agency\u2014one of their top priorities this offseason\u2014the onus will be on Wood and <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hayesja02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jaxson Hayes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to once again fill the void behind AD. Wood remained a productive presence inside the arc when healthy, using his length to deter shots and his 214-pound frame to score at will. He held several advantages to his counterpart, Hayes, particularly his experience, versatility and floor-spacing. Where Hayes has him beat, however, is in games played (70 vs. 50) and size (7\u20190\u201d vs. 6\u20198\u201d).<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a  href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/MfjL9PAiOnU?si=Aihst-GH6Kg40Ya-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lakers Nation\u2019s Trevor Lane<\/a> broke down the differences between Wood and Hayes, ultimately preferring the former to be Davis\u2019s backup this year:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cLast season, Christian Wood\u2014this is why I think I have to lean towards him\u2014the Lakers were +23.7 points per 100 possessions, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">23.7<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with Christian Wood, LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the floor. Now, I think that\u2019s an outlier. We\u2019re talking about just over 200 possessions, so that\u2019s a small sample size, but good Lord. There was a part of the season\u2026where Christian Wood, LeBron James and Anthony Davis was\u2014both in stats and the eye test\u2014the best lineup the Lakers could put on the floor. There was some synergy between those three players. It just worked out having the three of them on the floor, having the extra size out there.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lane went on to emphasize that although Hayes is not someone like Heat center <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/adebaba01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bam Adebayo<\/a>, who played alongside Davis on Team USA in a successful pairing, \u201cThere was something there [with a Wood-Davis combo],\u201d he said. As for how both players fared alongside James and without Davis, Wood won that battle as well, posting a +12.1 next to LeBron compared to Hayes&#8217; +3.8, according to Lane.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>For someone like Redick, who has embraced analytics as part of his coaching philosophy, the numbers don&#8217;t lie, and the choice seems clear.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe bottom line is that Christian Wood plus LeBron is a winning combination more so than Jaxson Hayes and LeBron,\u201d Lane said. \u201cChristian Wood, plus LeBron, plus AD is a winning combination way more so than Jaxson Hayes, plus LeBron, plus AD.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>The Last Word<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wood\u2019s remarks should make Laker fans excited despite the team\u2019s dull summer. His track record last year combined with his \u201cvengeance\u201d mentality make him an ideal fit to be Anthony Davis\u2019s backup over Hayes, though both will play crucial roles behind the All-Star center this upcoming season.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lakers\u2019 supporting cast around LeBron James and Anthony Davis was hampered by injuries last year. Among those who spent part of the season on the sidelines was backup center Christian Wood. Now entering his ninth season in the league, the 28-year-old big man sent out a message to Laker fans\u2014and seemingly the rest of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":92372,"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],"tags":[240,3145,1962,2279,38],"class_list":["post-92368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-christian-wood","tag-jaxson-hayes","tag-jj-redick","tag-lebron-james"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92368","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=92368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}