Film Study: Christian Wood’s strengths, weaknesses and questions marks

The Los Angeles Lakers completed a long-rumored move and signed free agent center Christian Wood this week, most likely completing their roster for the time being heading into training camp. The veteran center was signed to a two-year, veteran’s minimum deal, with the second year being a player option.

Reports have stated that superstar Anthony Davis prefers to move back to the 4 slot more during the regular season in order to reduce the wear and tear on him and allow him to play those minutes during the postseason (similar to what happened in 2020, when Davis’ minutes at center increased substantially during the playoffs).

With the addition of Wood along with Jaxson Hayes, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka is clearly aligned with Davis, giving the Lakers’ coaching staff multiple options to play alongside AD.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at what Wood can bring to this Lakers team:

The clear elephant in the room is this: Wood has now been on seven teams in seven seasons. With that large of a sample size of teams moving on, it typically hints at issues beneath the surface.

The Lakers will hope to use head coach Darvin Ham’s long-standing relationship with Wood, their vaunted player development staff, and the reality that this may be his last chance to prove himself as a means to get him to buy into all facets of the game. It may be their biggest test yet, but even so, at the contract he got, signing Wood is still a low-risk, potentially high-reward scenario.

Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, is a youth basketball coach at the U12 level and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA in which he further combines his movement expertise and fitness training. Combining his background in biomechanics, movement science, and learning science - he consults in a variety of sports including basketball on movement mechanics and skill acquisition. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC and analyzes the Lakers from a skills & medical perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance.