Christian Wood: The New Center for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Impact on the Team’s Perimeter Shooting

The Los Angeles Lakers have a new center, the second they have signed this summer (Jaxon Hayes was the first) and the third on the roster (the starter will continue to be Anthony Davis, logically). This is Christian Wood (27 years old, 2.08 meters) who arrives free after a season to forget at the Dallas Mavericks. Collectively, the Texan team did not even make it to the play-in, while individually, they never had the confidence of his coach, Jason Kidd, which has caused his image as a player to be damaged . The time in Dallas has not been good for his career. The best example is money. Last season he earned more than 14 million and next season he will stay below 3.

The contract he has signed with the Lakers is for two years and a total of 5.7 million dollars. But there is an important fact, and that is that the second year is with a player option, so it will only be carried out if Wood wants to. A good first season in Los Angeles gives him the option of going free on the market next summer to negotiate a more beneficial deal for his interests. So the center surely wants to perform at the best possible level this season within a team that will be among the contenders in the West, if injuries allow it. His two best players, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, are 38 and 30 years old, respectively. The second, who should still have several years of fullness ahead of him, has had to deal with more physical problems than usual throughout his career and the arrival of Wodd, like Hayes, should give him a break for a few minutes during the regular season.

Wood, who has always had a debatable performance in defense, is a player who can contribute interesting things in attack if he knows how to take advantage of his virtues. In the specific case of the Lakers, this incorporation can have a very positive effect on the team’s performance from the 3-point shot. The Lakers shot last year from the perimeter with a fairly low success rate of 34%, and Wood did it with 37%. He’s averaging 38% from 3-pointers over the past four years and is one of four centers to hit more than 100 3-pointers in each of the past two seasons, along with Nikola Vucevic, Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson. Last season, without having a leading role in Dallas, he finished it with an average of 16.6 points and 7.3 rebounds.

2023-09-06 08:26:01
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