It has only been two games on a minutes restriction, but Jarred Vanderbilt has already shown what the Los Angeles Lakers have been missing as he recovered from offseason foot surgeries. With the Lakers struggling to put away the Charlotte Hornets head coach on Monday night, JJ Redick turned to Vanderbilt for some crucial fourth quarter minutes and the forward delivered.
Vanderbilt’s numbers won’t impress as he finished with just four points, two rebounds and two steals in 13 minutes, but his overall activity and the havoc he created was massive for the Lakers. With the Hornets threatening to make a huge comeback Vanderbilt came up with back-to-back steals that pushed the lead back to 10 and give the Lakers some breathing room.
Afterward, Redick had a ton of praise for Vanderbilt, calling him a banshee and saying that the forward does everything the Lakers need him to do, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“He plays hard. He’s a banshee. So, excited to have him build up his conditioning and tolerance level for minutes. He was a spark tonight. The play where he got the steal, I believe it was 94-88, I had called the timeout after Okogie got the and-one to get it to 88. It was a 91-88 game and we scored, but then we were having a lot of trouble scoring. Our defense was really good in that stretch. We got at least three or four stops in a row and then Vando gets that steal ti put us up eight and it was kind of like, oh, that was huge. The offensive rebounds create second-chance opportunities, getting fouled when he was crashing the glass. He just does all the things we want him to do and he was high-level tonight.”
It had become a running joke to talk about how the Lakers are always waiting for Vanderbilt to return to the court to get a true judgment on the team, but there is no denying the impact he has. As Redick noted, there are so many little things he does such as drawing fouls and creating extra possessions that greatly benefit the Lakers, but don’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet.
The fact that he is doing this in such few minutes only gives hope to what he will bring to the team once his conditioning is completely back and he can be a full part of the rotation. He ended up sitting out on Tuesday in the second of a back-to-back, but Redick and the rest of the Lakers are happy to see Vanderbilt back as he clearly makes this team much better.
Jarred Vanderbilt appreciative of the support he’s gotten from Lakers
It has been a long road to return for Jarred Vanderbilt, but the forward has put in a lot of work to get back to where he is now and he is appreciative of the Lakers for supporting him throughout.
Vanderbilt said it means ‘everything’ to finally be back on the court, noting it had been nearly a full year since he last played. The defensive ace added that he is thankful for the support and patience he received from the Lakers organization and is excited to be back.
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