The Lakers’ best lineup by far this season has been two of DLo, Austin, and Prince alongside LeBron, AD, and Wood. Particularly notable in these minutes has been the frontcourt pairing of AD and Wood.
Before I go any further, I cannot stress this enough: I do not believe Christian Wood is a good defensive player. He is too skinny and doesn’t have great instincts as a primary rim protector.
That said, that’s not how the Lakers are using him, and the way they’re using him seems to play to all of his strengths. A big problem with the Lakers’ defence for a while was that if you got AD out of position, you could score at the basket with little resistance. With Wood’s length (pause) the Lakers have been mitigating this issue by having Wood back AD up under the rim. If AD gets out of position, Wood slides in (pause) and can often alter the shot.
This avoids Wood having to take on the more physical aspects of rim protection, while still utilizing his length. This also plays to Wood’s strengths by putting him in position to rebound, which has been a nightmare without him on the floor thus far.
Say what you will about Wood’s defence as a whole, he is a great rebounder. He has a knack for jumping at the right time such that he meets the ball at the apex of his jump, and he actually boxes out more consistently than just about anyone on the team. It’s no secret the Lakers have been incapable of rebounding this season, but that hasn’t been the case nearly as much with Wood out there.
Offensively, it’s certainly been more hit or miss, but his impact is still felt. His perimeter gravity at the big position has been a big reason why LeBron’s been able to drive so easily when they share the floor, as his release point combined with a 38% career 3 point shot means long closeouts aren’t an option with him, and teams play him that way.
It hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows of course. His screening hasn’t been good, his isolations have been a little clunky, and when he has served as the lone big on the floor it hasn’t looked great on defence (though he’s almost exclusively shared the floor with one of AD or Hayes the last couple games).
All that said, for a minimum contract, the Lakers couldn’t ask for much more than this.