Los Angeles’ power forward, who was recently extended, hasn’t played in the regular season yet.
Jarred Vanderbilt, a power forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, is still recovering from left heel bursitis that he sustained during the team’s opening preseason game last month. At least now we have some positive news regarding his progress, if not exactly a projected return date.
We were aware, as we communicated yesterday, that Vanderbilt’s recuperation schedule would be the subject of significant news sometime tonight.
According to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, Vanderbilt “has been cleared to begin a return to play progression” following a reevaluation on the heel by Los Angeles’ medical staff.
Let’s take a moment to analyze what that means.
It’s unclear when Jarred Vanderbilt will be able to play again. He can now begin getting ready to play again. That’s as ambiguous as it gets. We don’t know how long this will take, and it’s a little strange that he hadn’t been permitted to begin this “return to play progression,” whatever that may mean. Will he be gone for a few more weeks as a result of this? One more month?
In addition to reserve center Jaxson Hayes, Los Angeles has already endured injuries to stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Because of Vanderbilt’s absence, the team hasn’t been the massive defensive machine we anticipated coming into the season.
After joining LA from the Utah Jazz during a trade deadline deal, the 6’9″ power forward showed to be a vital part of the team’s late-season comeback in 2022–2023. In his 26 regular season games with the team last season, he started 24 of them. In 24 minutes per game, he averaged 7.2 points on 52.9% field goal shooting and 78.4% free throw shooting, along with 6.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.2 steals.
For the remainder of the Lakers’ home stretch in the regular season, the 24-year-old Kentucky product, a voracious and gregarious defender who can legitimately guard point guards through power forwards, essentially split power forward responsibilities with Rui Hachimura off the bench. Things worked out well for Hachimura during a surprising run to the Western Conference Finals, as Vanderbilt’s offensive deficiencies and incapacity to cover fives hindered his effectiveness when playing with superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who at the time were struggling to make their own jump shots.
Hachimura, on the other hand, put on a shooting clinic, and he had an advantage over Vanderbilt when it came to guarding centers in space because of his size. After dominating his minutes total during the playoffs, Hachimura finally replaced Vanderbilt as a starter in Game 4 of the team’s Western Conference Finals series.
However, it seems that Rob Pelinka, the president of the Los Angeles team, wanted to keep both Vanderbilt and Hachimura. He inked Vanderbilt to a four-year, $48 million contract extension over the summer and signed Hachimura to a three-year, $51 million contract as a restricted free agent.