The Los Angeles Lakers are eagerly awaiting the return of Jarred Vanderbilt who has yet to make his 2024-25 season debut.
Vanderbilt has been working hard during rehab and is making steady progress, advancing to on-court activity this past week. Head coach JJ Redick has been as optimistic as ever on Vanderbilt’s status as he recently said the forward’s return was imminent.
However, Redick later clarified that although Vanderbilt is making progress and is close to returning he still won’t make his season debut this week.
“He had an off day yesterday, today was a lighter day and then we’re gonna ramp him back up,” Redick said before Monday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs. “And that’s difficult right now with the G League traveling for I think they’re gone for four or five days and then our guys are gonna play every other day so we’re not gonna have any live action practice.
“So it’ll be a little bit of a mixed bag over the next week with live play against coaches, live play with coaches, try to mix in a little bit with the stay ready group. But we’ll get enough exposure to live simulation and hopefully he’s back soon. He’s close, but it’s not gonna be this week.”
The Lakers typically don’t practice in between game days, so their current schedule makes it difficult to find time to get Vanderbilt legitimate five-on-five action. As Redick noted, the South Bay Lakers are also traveling during their regular season which leaves them out another option. Given that Vanderbilt hasn’t been in many game situations yet, Los Angeles will need to be really creative with how they get him reps. They also are clearly taken their time ramping him up considering how much time he has missed.
The team will be relying heavily on Vanderbilt defensively once he does return, though, as they’ve started to slip on that end of the floor. In their recent loss to the Spurs, the Lakers struggled to slow them down and appeared flat in the second half. Vanderbilt’s hustle and energy are sorely missed on nights when the team is lacking that extra gear.
Hopefully Vanderbilt comes back soon because the purple and gold need a shot in the arm to get out of their current funk.
Anthony Davis & Jarred Vanderbilt are top donators in Lakers’ videographer Rohan Ali’s GoFundMe
The California Wildfires have been devastating for the Los Angeles community as people have lost their homes. Lakers videographer Rohan Ali’s childhood home in Altadena burned down, but Anthony Davis and Jarred Vanderbilt donated generous amounts of money for his GoFundMe.
