Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Los Angeles Lakers big man Christian Wood has yet to play a single game in the 2024-25 regular season, and some recent words from head coach J.J. Redick suggest that he won’t be back on the floor with the team anytime soon.
Per Redick, Wood experienced some soreness in his left knee amid his return-to-play progression. Thus, he won’t be re-evaluated for another four weeks.
Wood has seen his tenure with the Lakers get marred by injuries so far. He played in just 50 of Los Angeles’ 82 games during the 2023-24 campaign, his first season as a Laker, and averaged single digits in points per game for the first time since the 2018-19 season. That season, he played just 21 combined games with the Milwaukee Bucks and New Orleans Pelicans.
For as much as Lakers fans should hope to see Wood make his season debut as soon as possible, Los Angeles has done a solid job of keeping afloat without him.
After all, the Lakers own a solid 6-4 record, and Jaxson Hayes has served as a solid backup big man in Wood’s absence.
Hayes is averaging 6.3 points while shooting 70.6 percent from the floor coupled with 4.6 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per contest in 10 games played. In addition, he had his best scoring output of the season thus far in the Lakers’ win over the Toronto Raptors on Nov. 10.
Across over 21 minutes of action off the pine, Hayes totaled 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the floor while also chipping in six rebounds and one blocked shot.
Not long before the Lakers picked up a decisive victory over the Raptors, Hayes nearly totaled a double-double in his first start of the season, which came against the Memphis Grizzlies on Nov. 6. He corralled 10 rebounds but came up just short of reaching double digits in points with eight on six shot attempts.
If Hayes can continue to produce for the Lakers at the level he has of late, that would go a long way toward helping the team plug the hole left by Wood’s absence until the 29-year-old is feeling up to playing again.
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