Good stuff. Definitely another proof against that narrative. There's more going against it than for it. Nice to see. Let's see how the season unfolds for him
Knock down some shots, grab some boards, and play with some effort and intensity. Christian Wood is going to be just fine here, if he does those 3 things.
Apparently Cuban said they had a dude who smoked way too much weed: people speculating it's Wood. Good reason to cut the weed habit down now dude - gets you a bigger contract for more weed down the road!
needed to make sure he didn't end up playing for the minimum or something, right? nothing i saw in the preseason changed my opinion on wood. if anything, he looked worse than i expected on offense.
Just another example of awful advice from his agency (maybe). You have to go all out and stay ready. There's hundreds of NBA hopefuls who are in daily runs. Maybe the daily communication with us gave him that sense of security that he didn't have to push it because worst case scenario, that min offer was there. His bully ball in the post was effective. Outside of that, he looked much more like a 6 PPG player instead of a 20 PPG player. Granted the team is behind the curve defensively, but he looked like a blind man in an escape room. The effort isn't there. Compared to Hayes, it's night and day.
That's the thing for me. I'm not seeing the energy with him compared to Hayes. I think he's got to step up his effort big time if he wants to get high minutes.
He's a "break in case of AD injury" player at this point. I hoped he proves me wrong as the season goes on but I've been unimpressed so far.
I agree. Thus far he’s just AD insurance. If he becomes more than that, great. I’m liking Hayes much more for regular minutes.
Which is honestly great if we look into the big picture. We gave him the stage, he even started and on-court production was inferior to Hayes. If Ham continues his 'facts over feelings' motto, he's behind Hayes in AD's backup. He'll still play at the 4, at least until Vando comes back. Then he might have a few DNPs and just had to stay ready for when needed. Maybe it's what he needs to light some fire, he really has that superstar mentality vibe, thing is he's not one
I'm most excited about Woods this upcoming season. For a vet minimum, you weren't finding an offensive player like him who can plug in some of the offense that the Lakers will miss WHEN AD has to miss some games. With that being said, Woods is too fixated on being a scorer rather than an all-around big. He should play his role more like Pau Gasol. Not a scorer but just someone who makes winning plays. Too often I see Woods standing around demanding the ball and then looking upset when he doesn't get it. A few times Rui would jack up a shot and you could tell Woods was frustrated. He's been on way too many losing teams that he's been accustomed to playing losing basketball. Hopefully that changes this season. If the Lakers can't change him, he's probably another season away from being out of the league. These players are too fixated on the scoring aspect of the game and I don't believe they realize that GM's are very aware of players who just have empty stats. Woods could increase his value ten-fold if he just focused solely on defense and nothing else. If he could provide just 1/2 of what Brook Lopez does, he will have a long career in the league. Hayes and Woods could actually work together. I'm hoping they can experiment with that. These two just have to hold down the fort so AD can stay healthy.
the thing is that the market itself should have taught some of these guys. jaden mcdaniels just got 130 million after topping out at 12ppg last year. if wood hadn't been bad defensively for even just a single year, he'd have a lot more money and a bigger role.
Not sure how guys can't be affected by seeing contracts like that for contemporaries that they think they are better than. Has to be distracting.
sure, but the answer is to look within--why them and not me? it can't always be "everyone else is stupid and doesn't see my true value".
