Los Angeles Lakers Injury Report: Positive Update on Long-Hurt Role Player

The Los Angeles Lakers currently find themselves in the midst of quite a run. The team has won five contests in a row and seven of their last ten.

Los Angeles has been missing three bench contributors for much of 2024: backup point guard Gabe Vincent, reserve combo forward Jarred Vanderbilt, and bench power forward/center Christian Wood. Rookie shooting guard Jalen Hood-Schifion also underwent back surgery, but he's not a part of head coach Darvin Ham's rotation. Now, we've got an exciting update on the prognosis of at least one of those players, per Jovan Buha of The Athletic.

As Buha notes, Vanderbilt seems to be gearing up for a comeback this regular season. The team's medical staff has yet to give him the go-ahead for practice or contact activities. Vanderbilt has been out with a right midfoot sprain since February 1.

Vincent and Wood are both continuing to work their way back from left knee surgeries. Vincent has played just five games since signing a three-year, $33 million deal with the Lakers last summer.

In the games Vanderbilt has managed to play so far this year, he's been relatively ineffective on offense (par for the course with him), but probably the club's best point-of-attack defender on the perimeter (a need the Vincent signing was ostensibly also supposed to address, too). Across just 29 healthy contests (six starts), the 6-foot-8 Kentucky product is averaging 5.2 points on 51.8% shooting from the floor, 4.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, and 1.2 steals per bout.

Vanderbilt inked a four-year, $48 million contract extension with the franchise last summer. His new deal will kick in at the start of the 2024-25 season.

The Lakers are currently in the mix to get out of the Western Conference play-in tournament bracket. Only 2.5 games separate them from the West's current No. 6 seed, the 43-29 Dallas Mavericks. Los Angeles presently stands at 41-32 as of this writing. Wood only underwent his knee surgery earlier this month, and it's unclear how realistic it would be to expect him to return this season.

But adding back two critical defense-first pieces in Vincent and Vanderbilt could help lift the Lakers out of the uncertainty of the play-in bracket and allow them to secure a flat-out playoff berth, without playing any extra games. It's encouraging that Vanderbilt is improving, although until he starts taking contact in practice, it would behoove fans to exercise caution and avoid getting too excited until there are further updates.