Lakers News: Christian Wood Reacts To Darvin Ham's Surprise Starter Decision

LA plays Atlanta tonight.

With Los Angeles Lakers superstar center Anthony Davis shelved, reserve big man Christian Wood appears to be taking Darvin Ham's new starting lineup decision for tonight's Atlanta Hawks matchup rather personally.

The 6'10" veteran big man, who's played for seven teams in the last seven seasons, took to Twitter after Ham opted to instead elevate insanely raw Jaxson Hayes as his Davis replacement of choice.

Lol

— 35 (@Chriswood_5) January 31, 2024

Hayes has more defensive upside but rarely realizes it on the hardwood, instead of Wood, whose versatile offensive game makes him a more sensible fit in a shooting-challenged first five.

Wood has been in and out of Ham's rotations all year. Lately, the second-year head coach has opted to play All-Star power forward LeBron James and $51 million reserve power forward Rui Hachimura as his AD backups when The Brow has been healthy.

Both Wood and Hayes were inked to veteran's minimum deals over the summer, as Los Angeles looked to shore up its frontcourt depth behind the oft-injured eight-time All-Star.

Wood (and Hayes) may have been counting on Davis to miss a bit more time than he has thus far, so that both could build up their future free agent value on the league's glamor franchise. It hasn't happened yet, and Ham has also been surprisingly reticent to give either big consistent run, as he continues to reshuffle his lineups and rotations. Wood will certainly get a chance to play major minutes behind Hayes tonight, and my guess is he'll actively look to score.