The Los Angeles Lakers may have finally found a third star to complement LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, forward Christian Wood has signed a two-year deal with the Lakers. With that, the Purple and Gold now have a capable No. 3 scorer to help out the All-Star duo.
Wood, who turns 28 years of age on Sept. 27, is coming off a productive season with a disappointing Dallas Mavericks team in which he averaged 16.6 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.
Wood had his best season on a rebuilding Houston Rockets’ team in 2020-21, when he averaged 21 points, 9.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. He was also productive in his final year with the Rockets in 2021-22, averaging 17.9 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.
As usual, the Lakers were widely linked to many of the top free agents and offseason trade targets. But they were unable to land another impact starter to help James and Davis, but Wood should have little issue providing the much-needed secondary offense.
The Lakers finished the second half strong last year to lock down the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference. They upset the Memphis Grizzlies in the opening round before eliminating the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the conference semis.
Los Angeles was eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in the conference finals, losing in a four-game sweep. That series proved that LA needed more scoring offense to help James and Davis, and they just might have found the answer in Wood.