Jarred Vanderbilt's Possible Return Key to Lakers' Playoff Hopes amid NBA Rumors
The Los Angeles Lakers are hitting their stride during the stretch run of the 2023-24 NBA season.
Since Feb. 1, this group has gone 15-7, a winning percentage (.682) only eclipsed by six teams across the Association. For a club with championship aspirations and otherwise non-contending credentials (a 39-32 overall record, good for just ninth in the Western Conference), this is the kind of jump that suggests this group's greatest goals are still possible.
For the Lakers to truly factor into the championship discussion, though, they must find a way to reverse the trend of their defensive decline. While a lot of things have clicked during this successful stretch, none of them are happening on the defensive end, where L.A. ranks just 23rd in efficiency, per NBA.com, over the past month-plus.
Luckily, the Lakers just so happen to have a possible fix with the potential return of all-purpose stopper Jarred Vanderbilt from the right foot injury that has sidelined him since early February. While it's unclear when—or even if—he'll be able to return, there is "more internal optimism" he'll make it back by season's end than there is with guard Gabe Vincent, per The Athletic's Jovan Buha.
Vanderbilt may not singlehandedly cure all that ails this defense, but for a team hoping—and needing—to maintain momentum, he could provide a big boost.
He Could Limit One of the Lakers' Biggest Concerns
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You could pore over the Lakers' roster with a jeweler's loupe and still struggle to find many capable point-of-attack defenders.
LeBron James can only expend so much energy on the game's less glamorous end as a 39-year-old still carrying a massive offensive burden. D'Angelo Russell has never been regarded as a positive presence on that side of the ball. Austin Reaves has been targeted by strong, explosive athletic players.
Vanderbilt, meanwhile, has shined as a Swiss Army knife stopper. He has the lateral quickness to keep in front of speedy guards, the strength to body up bigger wings and the length (6'8" with a 7'1" wingspan) to be a nuisance both at the basket and in passing lanes.
As dominant as Anthony Davis can be on the interior, even he's powerless to stop a parade of perimeter attackers. Those leaks don't come nearly as often when Vanderbilt is on the floor.
Good Things Happen When He's on the Floor
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Admittedly, Vanderbilt is far from a perfect player. In fact, he is so limited on the offensive end that there are real questions over whether he'd be able to log significant playoff minutes even if he's healthy.
And yet, he is such a strong contributor on defense and the glass that the Lakers come out way ahead when he hits the hardwood.
The 581 minutes he has logged this season have been some of this squad's most dominant. His plus-5.0 net differential is the fourth-best among its rotation regulars. And out of the club's 12 players with more than 200 minutes, he has made the biggest impact on the defense, which has been 6.6 points stingier per 100 possessions with him than without.
If his defense can help complement this red-hot offense (second in efficiency since Feb. 1), L.A. just might strike the two-way balance that leads to sustained success.
The Lakers Need More Reliability in Their Rotation
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Lakers coach Darvin Ham keyed this late-season surge by putting his best five players in the starting lineup and leaning on them a lot. While it absolutely makes sense to deploy James, Russell, Reaves, Davis and Rui Hachimura together, it's also fair to wonder whether Ham would be so reliant on this quintet if the reserve unit had more reinforcements.
Since Feb. 1, minutes have increased for James (36.4), Russell (35.3), Reaves (34.5) and Hachimura (30.6). While none of those numbers is essentially alarming, they are at least at a concerning level when coupled with how daunting of a challenge the Lakers face in hoping to once again turn a (likely) play-in tournament invitation into a deep postseason trek.
Getting Vanderbilt back could help lighten those workloads. The 20 minutes per outing he has averaged so far may not sound like much, but L.A. would at least feel confident in knowing what it would get from him during that floor time, which isn't necessarily the case with someone like Max Christie (and definitely isn't the case with Cam Reddish).
So, even if Vanderbilt is merely an innings-eater in the regular season—last season showed he can be too great of an offensive liability to stick in the playoff rotation—those innings can matter, particularly for a team still jostling for prime postseason position and holding out hope of avoiding the play-in tournament by snagging a top-six seed.
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