The data doesn't lie|Countdown to Wood's joining the Lakers? An article detailing the advantages and disadvantages

Recently, Lone Ranger reporter Lauren Gunn reported that the possibility of Wood's base-salary joining the Lakers is increasing. He has the potential to become the 14th man on the regular lineup of the Lakers. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this big man, who is not yet 28 years old? In this issue of "Data Don't Lie", let's explore this topic.

Of the remaining free agents, Wood is undoubtedly the strongest overall. His offensive talent is enough to make him a low-risk, high-reward signing for any team. In addition to the Lakers, the Heat are also his potential suitors. Let's take a look at his advantages first——

Advantage 1: Very high blocking and dismantling score efficiency

Wood's most obvious strength is his efficient blocking offense. Last season, he ranked third in the league in scoring efficiency after blocking, reaching 1.38 points per round. He and Doncic often play out such blocking combinations in games.

Here's another example, after the block-and-break tactic, both defensive players were attracted to Doncic and also created open dunk opportunities for Wood.

Some people may say that Wood is so efficient in blocking and scoring because he has a passing master like Doncic by his side. Of course, Doncic has no small credit, but since Wood's explosion in 2020, he has been extremely efficient in blocking, and he also has high blocking scoring efficiency when Rose and Reggie Jackson are playmakers.

In the 2019-20 season, Wood's blocking efficiency was 1.41 points per round, and in the following two seasons, he also had 1.16 and 1.18 points, respectively, and rebounded to 1.38 points last season.

Advantage 2: Catch the ball and shoot three points accurately

In addition to being a threat in blocking, Wood's three-point shot is also very accurate. Last season, Wood shot 41.8 percent from three-point range, second among all big men who averaged at least two three-pointers per game.

Looking at this ball again, Doncic's breakthrough suddenly attracted the opposing defense, allowing Wood to get a big open three-point shot, and he didn't waste such an opportunity to hit the ball.

Advantage three: better breakthrough ability in big people

As a big man, Wood is also unique in that he has excellent ball control. His ball-carrying breakthrough is a certain threat. Last season, among the big men, he ranked 9th in breakthroughs per 75 rounds. On the next shot, Wood broke through the defense and scored a beautiful European step basket.

He can also catch the ball and go straight to the basket, this time, he broke through Sabonis's defense and completed a two-handed dunk under the basket!

Advantage 4: Good back singles and mid-range shooting ability

Wood has had excellent performances in low-post singles. Although he has a higher turnover, he is equally efficient, with an effective shooting percentage of 60% in back-to-back singles. Back singles + back-up jumpers are Wood's specialty.

Over the years, Wood's back-to-back scoring efficiency has steadily increased. In 2019-20, it was 0.84 points per round, rising to 0.89 points per round in 2020-21, 0.92 points per round in 2021-22 and 0.98 points per round last season.

Another improvement Wood's improvement this season is his mid-range jumper, shooting 49 percent, whereas he has never shot more than 40 percent in his career.

Advantage five: Organizational and defensive rebounding ability is overlooked

An often-overlooked part of Wood's game is his playmaking skills. He's not an incredible passer, but he does often make a good read of the game. In the following ball, he accurately passed the ball to his teammates who appeared on the outside when facing the three-man bag.

Another example is this goal, Wood, who stood at the top of the arc, passed the ball to the cutting Brock at the first time.

In the BBall Index's organizational rankings, Wood ranks 15th out of 98 big men who have played more than 500 minutes, which is the upper middle level.

Another overlooked virtue of Wood is his excellent defensive rebounding. Last season, he grabbed 8.8 defensive rebounds per 75 rounds, ranking 18th out of 98 big men who played 500 minutes.

Having talked about the advantages, let's also talk about the disadvantages. Wood's defense is the biggest flaw, and both interior defense and defensive dismantling are his weaknesses. In addition to defensive deficiencies, he has two shortcomings on the offensive end -

Disadvantage 1: The shooting rate of dry pulling with the ball is not high

As mentioned above, Wood's ability to catch and shoot is strong, but his efficiency with the ball is very low. The data shows that he tried 100 dry jumpers with the ball last season and only shot 32.5% effectively. Of the 193 players who had at least 75 dry jumpers last season, he ranked 188th in effective field goal percentage. An attack like the one below looks quite handsome, but it is really not efficient.

Disadvantage 2: The shooting percentage under the basket is not ideal

Wood has shot 68 percent from the basket for the last two seasons, which is still not ideal for a big man, and he needs to return to the form of his previous two years (76 percent in both 2019-20 and 2020-21).

Combining Wood's strengths and weaknesses, the conclusion is that in order to maximize Wood's offensive ability, he should make full use of him to block and dismantle, and act as an outside battery to open up space on the field, occasionally play some low posts, but don't let him have too much ball to attack.