Coming off a season in which numerous role players missed significant time, the Los Angeles Lakers are hoping for better injury luck in 2024-25.
Unfortunately, things aren’t off to the greatest start as some of their players spent the summer rehabbing previous issues. Christian Wood recently underwent knee surgery and will miss the start of the season, while Jarred Vanderbilt will not be ready for the start of training camp.
Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka revealed that Vanderbilt got procedures done on both of his feet during the offseason and although they are hopeful he will be ready for Opening Night, there are still steps he needs to take to get there.
There were some good injury updates at Pelinka’s press conference on Wednesday though as he broke down where Vanderbilt is at while also announcing the Gabe Vincent, Rui Hachimura and Jalen Hood-Schifino have been cleared for the start of training camp.
“Gabe Vincent and Rui Hachimura are both cleared for camp. No issues there,” Pelinka said. “In terms of Vando, this offseason he did have two procedures, one on each of his feet, and the procedures were highly successful. He’s on a return-to-play program that so far has been lockstep and very promising, led by our new Director of Performance, Dr. Leroy Sims and his team, they’ve been doing a great job. We have a lot of optimism that when the real games start, he’ll be available.
“Between now and then, there is still about a month, and there are a lot of ramp up steps that need to go well, so hopefully there won’t be setbacks. So far, very promising, and we’re grateful that he has the issues in his feet behind him, and it’s just now a matter of getting fully ramped up and ready to be cleared. Christian Wood, on the same knee he had surgery on last season, he did have a separate clean-up surgery that went well, performed by Dr. Chris Jones at UCLA Health, and he’ll be re-evaluated in six weeks, and is progressing well. Jalen (Hood-Schifino) is cleared.”
Vincent missed a majority of his first season with the Lakers due to a knee issue so it is great to see that he is healthy going into this season. He will be the Lakers’ first guard off the bench and should play a significant role for JJ Redick is he can return to his 2022-23 form.
Meanwhile, Hachimura injured his calf while playing for Japan in the Olympics this summer. He was leading his team in every statistical category before going down but luckily it appears the injury wasn’t serious.
Hood-Schifino is another player that missed the end of last season as well as Summer League after undergoing back surgery. The 2023 first-round pick appears to have been cleared a while ago though and has been working on his game at the Lakers’ practice facility to be ready for camp.
JJ Redick reveals Lakers starting lineup
Having Rui Hachimura, in particular, healthy is important for the Lakers as JJ Redick already revealed that he will be starting alongside LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell.
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