NBA transfer: Los Angeles Lakers "closed" bigman Christian Wood at a very cheap price
According to information from reputable journalist Adrian Wojnarowski on the morning of September 6 (Vietnam time), the Los Angeles Lakers have reached an agreement to recruit big man Christian Wood with a 2-year contract.
Here's what you need to know about this new deal:
- In the NBA transfer market this summer, Wood is considered to be in the top-5 most valuable strikers according to The Athletic.
Compared to the previous contract (3 years - 40 million USD), Christian Wood has accepted a rather high salary reduction with the goal of playing for the Los Angeles Lakers.
He has both competed in a highly competitive team and has the ability to seek the championship. The big man born in 1995 shared on the X platform (formerly Twitter): "Wearing for the Lakers has always been my dream."
As for the yellow and purple team, they only spent 5.7 million USD in 2 years to have the services of one of the most quality strikers on the market at the moment.
In the most recent season, Wood averaged more than 16 points/game and showed quite a bit of flexibility in attack. There are still concerns about Christian's mentality but in a dressing room with LeBron James as leader, this is something that can be resolved with time.
The Los Angeles Lakers have finally completed their goal of finding a center forward, officially closing 14 spots on the roster for the 2023-24 season.
In the immediate future, Wood will compete for minutes and a position in the starting lineup with Rui Hachimura (bigman just signed a 3-year contract worth $51 million). In the long run, Wood will become Anthony Davis's backup plan.
In the event that AD is forced to retire for any reason, Christian will immediately be substituted to join Hachimura in the near-basket and contribute to the attack alongside LeBron James.
On the minus point, Christian Wood used to have problems related to the dressing room and psychology when playing. This is also the reason why some teams need a striker but are still shy and do not sign a contract with a big man born in 1995.
Even so, the Los Angeles Lakers brought Wood to Crypto.com at a price that was too cheap compared to what this player showed last season.
Combined with the ability to "overpower" leader LeBron James in the locker room, Christian Wood can focus more on playing even though his role will be smaller than before.
