Maybe no player for the Los Angeles Lakers has had worse injury luck over the past few seasons than forward Jarred Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt was sidelined for all but 29 of Los Angeles’ 82 contests in the 2023-24 regular season, and he has yet to suit up since the start of this campaign after he got surgery in the offseason.
However, a move that the Lakers made on Friday indicates that Vanderbilt is inching closer to making his season debut with Los Angeles. Los Angeles assigned him to the team’s G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers. South Bay will practice before Los Angeles does, and thus Vanderbilt will able to get some extra reps in.
The Los Angeles Lakers have assigned forward Jarred Vanderbilt to the South Bay Lakers.
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) January 10, 2025
Jarred Vanderbilt has been assigned to the South Bay Lakers, the team announced. South Bay practices this morning before the Lakers do, so it gives Vanderbilt a chance to get in extra court time as he continues his progression towards a return.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 10, 2025
The Lakers announced earlier this week that Vanderbilt has been cleared for full-court activities with contact and will be re-evaluated in one week.
Vanderbilt has played just 55 regular-season games as a member of the Lakers ever since he was acquired by the team partway through the 2022-23 campaign in a three-team trade that sent Russell Westbrook from Los Angeles to the Utah Jazz. In his maiden season with the Lakers, he started 24 of the 26 games he appeared in.
The presence of a healthy Vanderbilt would seemingly provide the Lakers with something they’ve been sorely lacking at times this season: a disruptive wing defender. Despite the fact that Los Angeles employs one of the league’s more effective defensive players in Anthony Davis, the Lakers have been subpar on that end to this point.
Los Angeles’ defensive rating of 115.3 ranks 23rd in the league, and the team’s defense looked particularly porous in its most recent game against the Dallas Mavericks on Jan. 7. The Lakers allowed the Mavericks to score a whopping 118 points on 52.3 percent shooting from the field and 47.4 percent from 3-point range.
On top of what he brings to the table on defense, he’s also quite an effective rebounder. He pulled down 4.8 a season ago in just 20.0 minutes of playing time per contest. Vanderbilt also averages 6.4 boards per game for his NBA career.
Hopefully, Vanderbilt will be back on the floor again for the Lakers in no time.
