Christian Wood Out at Least Eight Weeks After Knee Surgery. Lakers Frontcourt Looking Thin?

Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers

Heading into the weekend, whispers about the health of Jarred Vanderbilt, who missed most of last season with foot problems, started getting a little louder, with reports that he might not be ready for the start of training camp next month. Not good! Well, Monday brought news that was wasn't exactly great, either.

Backup center Christian Wood, who himself missed much of last season with health problems, underwent surgery to repair the same left knee that was operated on in March. This about a week after declaring on social media that he was back and on a mission to prove himself. Well, that's going to have to wait. He's out a minimum of eight weeks, at which time the Lakers will re-evaluate Wood and figure out next steps. (Eight weeks stretches into early November.)

With Vanderbilt (potentially) on the shelf, the loss of Wood is even more significant. But even if Vanderbilt is available, Wood was expected to be a big addition to the frontcourt, providing JJ Redick with optionality Darvin Ham didn't have last year. Like Vanderbilt, Wood possesses a skill set that can't be replicated at his position by anyone else on the roster. In Wood's case, his frontcourt scoring ability, along with his rebounding, really can't be reproduced, given that the only other center on the team is Jaxson Hayes.

And, as a reminder, the Lakers really aren't in position to add anyone. Not that the streets are crawling with potential solutions to this problem.

It's a tough way to enter training camp for a team already fighting negative vibes from a very, very inactive offseason.

And it's something that's not going to have anyone feeling any better about the team's ability to keep guys healthy, even if this particular recurrence is nobody's fault.

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: Christian Wood gets surgery, again.

SEGMENT 2: What the Lakers lose without Wood.

SEGMENT 3: Bad vibes get badder.

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