Christian Wood Signs Two-Year Deal With Lakers
Christian Wood has agreed to a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski first reported Tuesday. There is a player option attached to the second year of the contract.
His two-year will be worth $5.7 million, according to ESPN NBA cap insider Bobby Marks, and helps the Lakers reach the 14-player minimum ahead of the 2023-24 season. Last season, Wood averaged 16.6 points per game, 7.3 rebounds per game, and just under 2 assists per game with the Dallas Mavericks.
Wood is one of the most offensively gifted big men in the NBA. He ranked in the 93rd percentile last season as a roll man, averaging 1.44 points per possession. Additionally, Wood converted 67 percent of his attempts inside five feet.
Among players with four or more attempts per game inside five feet last season, that would rank as the 44th-best mark in the NBA. While some of this can be attributed to playing alongside Luka Doncic, Wood has always been a plus-roll man. However, if you give him an elite pick-and-roll ball-handler, he becomes an elite roll man.
He’s also always been one of the best floor spacers at the five. 2023 marked the fourth consecutive season where Wood has converted 37 percent or more of his 3-point opportunities. It’s the third consecutive season where he eclipsed that mark on four or more 3-point attempts per game.
Wood also converted nearly 42 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts last season. Among players with three or more catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts last season, that ranked as the 20th-best mark in the NBA.
Simply put, he’s one of the best pick and rollers and pick and poppers in all of basketball.
The one area of Wood’s game that leaves something to be desired is on defense. He’s 6-foot-9 and not an insane vertical athlete, so he’ll never be a dominant rim protector. With Wood on the floor, the Mavericks had a defensive rating of 118.5, which would rank as the third-worst defense in the NBA last season. This isn’t to solely attribute all the Mavericks’ defensive struggles to Wood, but he’s just not a high-impact defender.
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