Looking at you Pelinka and Ham!!!! Have you f***ed / Don’t f*** …. this up. Welp Castleton you’re f***ed and not getting a sniff with ANY minutes with the varsity NO matter how well you’re doing, including ANY looks in pre-season games. Hey Hayes ….. You’re/We're semi-f***ed too. There goes our “BIGGER” Wenyan Gabriel energy and vertical game off the bench because of probably promises and/or pecking orders.
Are some of y’all really getting upset that Wood will likely be ahead of … Jaxson Hayes on the depth chart? Lmao, what? So we hate on Wood because of his “character issues” and lack of defense, and want him to EARN his role. Meanwhile Hayes has his own documented character issues, is also not a good defender, and is on paper not as good of a fit. And the only thing he’s done to “earn” a spot in the rotation so far has been signing his contract earlier. The sentiment around here sounding A LOT like when we brought back Dwight and Schröder for their second stints. I think it will have a similar outcome.
I'm not really sure what we do with him other than start him tbh. Wood only makes sense next to AD or Hayes, he can't be your only big on the floor. I can't really see Wood and Hayes playing much together unless its a night that AD or LeBron is sitting out. Wood's value is in giving us the two bigs, floor-spacing 5 look that we didn't have last year. Puts more length on the court without compromising spacing. To start the season I'd give him the McGee/Gasol role; play the first 6 minutes of each half and nothing more. That's when teams tend to play their bigger, clunkier lineups anyway, so I think that's when the two-big, floor-spacing 5 look could provide the most value. LeBron isn't as good defensively night-to-night as he was in 2020 or 2021, but its only the first few minutes of each half. Russell/Reaves/LeBron/AD/Wood could be pretty awesome offensively, and I think any lineup with AD + league average or better size around him has a fairly high floor defensively. With that much firepower around him, maybe we even see LeBron defending more consistently and expending less energy on offense. Maybe LeBron and Wood go to the bench together, and both Rui and Vando come in. When LeBron is in and AD is out, then we run with LeBron/Rui/Hayes frontcourts. It might also be the best solution to Wood's "attitude" issues; he'd be starting for one of the best teams in the league, but would probably be like 7th in terms of minutes per game. If starting him isn't working, then just scrap it. It's a good point that you can't just cut him and pay someone else without thinking about it like its 2k, but I also don't buy that Wood being disgruntled or anything like that poses a significant threat to the team. It wouldn't be difficult to trade him on this deal.
There's some differences there: -Dwight: we had McGee. Bron and AD were younger and they weren't at the stage of load/ injury management they are at today. Dwight was 34, knew that was the last stop if it went wrong. His deal was non-guaranteed, so he had to work for it even after he ended up on the opening night roster. Dwight also likes being liked, part of him wanted to get on the good graces of Lakers fans after the first debacle. Wood's contract is guaranteed. If this goes sideways, he's only 27, he'll get a chance somewhere else. Whiteside kept getting chances until he was 32 before teams finally realized he wasn't going to change. There's no redemption season with the Lakers that he feels he owes the city, team, or fans. I don't think he or his agent (Christian, please fire them!) have had the coming to terms meeting with who he is or where he is in his career. They're still sipping from the Wood kool-aid. Dennis: misjudging the bag was Schroder's worst move. Not nearly as many strikes for other reasons as Wood or D12. In various cities, he was unhappy coming off the bench. Sometimes warranted. Sometimes not. But DS the player is giving you 110% out there on both ends and then it was on the coach to guide that and cap the minutes. I don't think he would've had to rely on strong international play to get a contract (from us) last year if the contract/worth perception was different. Because there was no other reason to justify him not having offers and I think the only reason he took the discount to come back here (vs. the min from elsewhere) was the Ham connection.
my concern is that anything over 12mpg probably starts eating into rui/vando/prince minutes. if he can beat out hayes for the scrap center minutes, that's ok. he complained about a larger role than that last year, though. i was happy about both of those signings and don't see them as like this one at all. the positive comp is monk (maligned no-d, me-first guy who found a good role and thrived in it) the negative comp is drummond (unofficial end of career for a me-first stat chaser who can't contribute to winning basketball) it probably won't be as good as the first or as bad as the second, but i'd have been happier with a biyombo or even wenyen. again, decent insurance for both AD and lebron injuries, offensively, though.
I don't see him starting. Ham's 4-out offensive style doesn't stagger 2 bigs. We barely played it last year. It also impacts Rui's establishment in the core rotation, which wouldn't be good after his postseason and investment in his new contract. Or than Vando just doesn't play, which looks wrong when he's an ideal regular season player where just effort gives you a big advantage every other night. I agree that the best Lakers' AD version was with Markieff, with whom Wood is very similar, but I'm not sure it's the best use of this roster. On the bright side, we now have a very interesting training camp/preseason. Only questions were if Max or Reddish were our 10th guy and if Rui or Vando started. Now we have a bunch of different scenarios that can play out and will be interesting to see it materialize Yeah, I've definitely got influenced by the 14th guy, timeline considerations of this deal. It's been 2 months since we have our roster set, so in my head this was the 3rd string C addition. Indeed, it's not (entirely at least). But I still think it's between him and Hayes. Maybe they play different nights depending on matchups. But other than that, I don't agree with him taking Rui/Vando's minutes, unless he's running for MIP. I don't see any benefits in playing him and Hayes in the same game when we have Lebron, AD, Rui and Vando playing in those 4/5 spots. It's just too many people. I think we will test Wood/AD lineups for sure, but our current roster construction and player development plans doesn't justify it
Keeping an open mind and will hope for the best. https://theathletic.com/4837058/202...lakers-free-agent/?source=user_shared_article
Also, his first interview will be important to understand where he's at mentally. Does he understand his career is on the line or is he delusional like you know who
Again I’m pleased with the Wood signing. First, and probably most importantly he’s AD insurance. That’s the biggest thing here. We know AD will miss some time. Now Wood can pick up that scoring slack. We can also now possibly afford to give AD some back to backs off or just sit him for preventative reasons or whenever he needs more rest. I’m not that concerned with role other than that. If they try him out next to AD I’m fine with that. I had hoped that we would have tried that with Mo Bamba last year but he was never healthy enough to do it. It could work offensively of course and I even think it might work defensively at times depending on the other team’s lineup. At the end of the day, yes he is our 14th player signed. He’s on a vet min contract and he is the one who has to prove his value. Our squad is packed and has a lot of versatility. We have already won a championship with Lebron and AD and made it to the WCF last year after the deadline. Wood took his time signing here so there are no guarantees for him starting or anything else. He will have to earn his spot. I’m cool with that and if he doesn’t work out so be it. It’s the Monk situation for him. Ham won’t put up with any nonsense. Too many guys ahead of him who can play.
I'm not sure its settled that Ham's offensive scheme precludes two big lineups. Recall that he came from Milwaukee where they tried to have Lopez and Portis next to Giannis as much as possible until a particular matchup called for Giannis at the 5. Last year we went into the season with AD, Bryant and Jones as the bigs. Jones allegedly had worked on his three-point range and was candidate to start, but he sucked immediately and was overtaken by Wenyen who really can't play with another big. They talked some about playing AD and Bryant together and it never happened, but I think a lot of that was AD being in and out of the lineup and Bryant being more of a big that can shoot some rather than a true floor-spacing big. Plus, and this might be the biggest reason, Russ just does not fit with two-big lineups even if one of them spaces the floor well. Then we bring in Bamba, but the coaching staff never trusted him and he got hurt immediately too. All that to say, going into last year I think there was some intention to go with a two-big look but roster construction and guys being hurt/generally sucking prevented it. The interest in Myles Turner was real, and they obviously weren't considering trading for a guy like that just to bring him off the bench. As for whom Wood displaces from the lineup, the first name that comes to mind is Vando. I've probably been a little too low on Vando since he arrived, and now that this group gets a full training camp together I think we'll see him used a little more creatively on offense like they did in Utah. I don't think Vando is getting squeezed from the rotation, at least in the regular season. The energy and defense he brings is too valuable during the regular season slog. It feels like the organization is really high on Rui, so his minutes aren't getting pinched below like 25 per game. Christie is the guy I'm looking at. I really like him and think he'll be ready to contribute, but 20 year olds tend not to big consistent rotation guys for the best teams. Given how much depth we have in the frontcourt now, I could see Prince essentially sliding up a position and being the backup 2 if Christie isn't quite ready. Russell / Vincent Reaves / Prince LeBron / Vando AD / Rui Wood / Hayes That as the core group with Christie and Reddish as deeper bench options makes some sense to me IF the Wood and AD fit seems good and Christie isn't quite ready to be a fixture in the rotation yet.
he's not as bad defensively as he's made out to be. LakersNation yesterday went through his numbers and seems he had an outlier bad year last season, but before that, he had been a serviceable defender. and even last season's numbers show he's an above-average rim protector, just a crappy perimeter defender.
I hoped for the Wood signing. He is the type of player I always go for sometimes to my detriment (the slick scorer you take a punt on like swaggy p (not a bad Laker in retrospect in a time when we weren't going anywhere, Michael Beasley (the alltime woulda shoulda coulda champion, if playing for a team was solely about potential). My prediction on with a lack of buyers and the player option making this essentially a contract year, is that we get some value and some acceptable defence and less bad attitude. For the price would is nice. Sure he may be arriving with a parade of red flags, but I think he may finally mature given the money and visibility riding on this Lebron's Laker season. I can't see that he will have the self-destructive gene of a mid season Charlie Sheen.
