Report: Gabe Vincent could return as early as next week for Lakers

Shams Charania of The Athletic recently reported that Los Angeles Lakers guard Gabe Vincent could make his return to the floor in the near future.

“Gabe Vincent finally to the point where he’s progressing to conditioning and ramping up on the floor,” Charania said. “His window — I’m told — to potentially return begins next week. And this is a guy that’s only played five games in the month of December, last played Dec. 20. And they’re hopeful that there’s no setback. That’s always been the thing here with Gabe Vincent’s rehab — it was before his knee surgery, and then after he underwent that arthroscopic knee surgery.”

Vincent agreed to a three-year, $33 million deal with Los Angeles in the 2023 offseason shortly after playing solid basketball in the playoffs for the Miami Heat, who reached the 2023 NBA Finals. He averaged 10-plus points per game in every one of Miami’s four playoff series during its historic run.

But as Charania mentioned, Vincent hasn’t been able to stay on the court in his first season as a member of the iconic Lakers franchise. He has appeared in just five of the team’s 66 regular-season games to this point and is averaging 5.4 points and 3.0 assists per game while shooting 37.5 percent from the field and 11.8 percent from 3-point range.

However, the play of Lakers guard D’Angelo Russell has helped make Vincent’s absence from the team more manageable. The 28-year-old — who was looking forward to co-existing with Vincent before the start of the season — is averaging 18.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game on 47.1 percent shooting from the field and 42.4 percent from deep in 61 games with Los Angeles so far in the 2023-24 regular season.

The floor general has been scoring the ball at a high level in the month of March, as he is averaging 22.0 points on 51.9 percent shooting from the floor and 48.8 percent from deep. His best scoring display of the month to this point came versus the Milwaukee Bucks on March 8, when he dropped a whopping 44 points on 25 shots from the field.

Russell also accumulated 26 points versus the Oklahoma City Thunder — the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference with a fantastic 45-19 record — on March 4.

Lakers fans should be thrilled to hear Charania’s injury update on Vincent. After all, his presence should take some of the pressure off of Russell. Plus, when healthy, Vincent has proven to be a productive NBA guard who can make plays for himself and others.