Lakers lose Christian Wood for at least eight weeks after left knee surgery

The Los Angles Lakers announced that big man Christian Wood underwent a successful arthroscopic surgical procedure on his left knee on Monday, and that he will be reevaluated in approximately eight weeks.

With the 2024-25 regular season set to open six weeks from now on Oct. 22, that means Wood is projected to miss all of training camp and the preseason and at least two weeks of the regular season, and that's just when he'll be reevaluated.

That puts the timeline somewhere in November if all goes well.

This isn't the first procedure Wood has had on his left knee this calendar year. He also had arthroscopic surgery in March, which ended his 2023-24 season, which wasn't going all that well anyway. The Lakers could've made him active for their latter half of their first-round series vs. the Nuggets, but chose not to.

When the Lakers signed Wood in 2023 for two years, $5.7M, it was seen as a bargain deal on a stretch big man who could, theoretically, fit pretty seamlessly with Anthony Davis in two-big lineups with his ability to operate on the perimeter and alongside the playmaking of LeBron James.

It didn't that way, as Wood, who averaged just under 17 PPG in his final season with the Mavericks, put up under seven PPG on 30% 3-point shooting un just over 17 minutes per game in his first season in L.A. His second year on the contract was a player option, but that production wasn't nearly good enough for him to test the free agent market this past summer. So he stayed in L.A. for $3M.

Without Wood, the Lakers still have the top two big men in Davis and Jaxson Hayes. This shouldn't be a big loss for whatever time Wood is out, and hopefully he'll be back as soon as possible.