Jarred Vanderbilt Discussion: The Vandalorian

I’m not down on Vando as much as others. He does have a place on a properly balanced roster.

 

i love vando, but i've come to believe he's probably not playable in some playoff series. if he's healthy, he's still a huge regular season difference maker, imo. and he's paid at that value. if we can't move him for an upgrade, i'm totally fine with him being in the rotation. he's got things you can't teach: size, mobility, and motor. decent hoop iq, too. just almost no skill.

 

After all these years, abeer is joining the dark side regarding Vando. I see you're still not quite there with the caveat "some" playoff series but the hate is flowing yes yes

 

I love Vando - but I'm happy to trade him. If not this offseason, at the deadline next year. He just hasn't really improved in any tangible way to be a playoff rotation piece.

 

Vando is a 9th-10th man. He can give us some good regular season minutes, but the rest of the roster needs to be constructed such that he can be dropped out of the playoff rotation. Considering his contract will be unappealing, we should be focusing on using the assets we do have to acquire players that move Vando down the depth chart, rather than having to attach assets to his contract in a trade.

 

Yeah I agree with the general perception here.

Nice player with unique skills but underwhelming growth in 1y and lack of availability makes him tradable. I think some teams may take him, even tanking ones that can use him as an energizer with a view to flip him in the deadline for expirings from a contender where he fits better

Luka's trade changed everything. We have a clear view on roster construction and a short window with Bron pairing. No time to lose.

I imagine JJ had a 1on1 with Luka and hyped him up for next season. I think Luka trusts JJ and I see Luka having an MVP season. We're going all-in next year and I see at least half of the rotation being traded, Vando being one of them

 

They're going to teach him how to shoot.

 

LOL .... yeah before I saw your comment I was wondering with him being the star attraction exactly "what" skills he himself was going to be teaching. Of course he will have staff and help lined up for all of that and it's still a cool gesture. Wouldn't be surprised though if it doesn't pull a whole heck of a lot of attendance.

 

he's from houston, so i'm guessing folks will show. when i was a kid i went to a basketball camp in dallas that was put on by john shumate--a former pro you've never heard of. but he was from dallas, and people came.

 

Ahhh … didn’t realize that part. Maybe Slick will go for a selfie with him?

 

Let's get my boy off the back pages. Folks are sleeping on H-Town Hustle. Play this man JJ!!


https://www.google.com/amp/s/lakers...ted-for-first-healthy-offseason-in-years/amp/

 

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Lakers Nation > > Lakers News > Lakers News: Jarred Vanderbilt ‘Excited’ For First Healthy Offseason In Years
Lakers News
Lakers News: Jarred Vanderbilt ‘Excited’ For First Healthy Offseason In Years
Matt Peralta
Published: 05/09/2025
3 Min Read

Mar 19, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt (2) dunks in the first half against the Denver Nuggets at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images


Jarred Vanderbilt has had an injury-plagued career in the NBA and started the 2024-25 season on the shelf as he recovered from offseason foot surgery.

The Los Angeles Lakers acquired Vanderbilt in the blockbuster Russell Westbrook trade a couple of years ago and has established himself as a key cog off the bench. While Vanderbilt struggles offensively, he is a menace defensively and often the player that brings the energy and intensity levels up for the Lakers.

Head coach JJ Redick had high praise for Vanderbilt this past season, calling him a banshee that does everything for the team. His all-out effort on both ends of the floor is admirable and figures to play a huge role during the 2025-26 season.

This summer represents the first healthy offseason Vanderbilt’s had in years and he acknowledged he’s excited for it.

“For myself personally, I’m excited. I haven’t had a healthy offseason in like two years,” Vanderbilt said. “This last summer, coming off multiple surgeries and not being able to workout all summer, I’m just excited to be able to have a healthy summer, man, so I can really put the time in and be able to work on my game and, also, have a healthy summer.”

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Los Angeles missed Vanderbilt’s presence on the floor to begin the regular season and it wasn’t a surprise to see their defensive numbers pick up once he returned to the lineup. Vanderbilt’s the Lakers’ best perimeter defender as he can keep up with speedier guards and smaller wings, but he’s also a tenacious rebounder that can buy the team extra possessions.

Offensively, Vanderbilt’s limited to dump offs and offensive putbacks but if he ever becomes a semi-reliable 3-point shooter he could raise the team’s ceiling. Redick mentioned having an offseason program for each player to follow this summer and shooting should definitely be on Vanderbilt’s.

Overall, Vanderbilt having a full offseason to work on his game only benefits the Lakers who’ll need to get more out of its role players if they hope to win a title next year.

Jarred Vanderbilt loves having other ‘dawgs’ on the Lakers with him
Jarred Vanderbilt is one of those players fans love to cheer for if he’s playing for their team and one fans hate if he’s playing against them. Vanderbilt’s got a tough and physical mindset when he’s on the floor and he admitted he likes having other ‘dawgs’ with him on the Lakers’ roster.

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Matt Peralta
Matt was born and raised in Long Beach, Calif. and is a lifelong Lakers fan. Because of his love for basketball and the Lakers, Matt successfully pursued a degree in journalism at California State University, Long Beach (#GoBeach) and is now a Staff Writer for LakersNation.com. He is also a Staff Writer for RamsNewsWire.com and RaidersNewsWire.com. Contact: mattp@mediumlargela.com Twitter: @_MatthewPeralta Instagram: @matthewperalta

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I remember when the Cavs signed Omri Casspi - mainly because this huge contingent of Israeli fans suddenly jammed the Cavs board. He totally sucked in the NBA but I watched him in EuroLeague and he looked like Kevin Durant out there. I bet Vando looks amazing even skillwise against basically everyone except playoff level NBA teams - we're just so used to watching the elite of the elite that a guy like Vando who is good enough to eat regular season minutes in the NBA seems bad in comparison.

 

I remember seeing off-season footage of JAVALE MCGEE and he was doing crossovers and hitting step back 3s like nothing. It's easy to forget just how good NBA players are compared to even good basketball players.

 

No doubt. True story...back in my day, I thought I was pretty damn nice hooping. Held my own with some college kids, overseas ballers, hood playground stars etc.

I used to think that Allen Level ( Houston Rockets guard, back in the 80s) was a scrub. Back then a lot of the Rockets players and players from Houston, or Texas in general, used to hang out at Fonde Rec Center. This was a hoop hotbed back in the day. You could mingle with those guys, If you got lucky, you could even run some 5 on 5, with some of these guys.

Long story short, I found myself on the court with Level...I thought I was going to make my mark. Dude smoked me!! It was like he was running around on skates! Dropping everything he put up! Lol..I scored a few buckets of my own, but I couldn't do anything with that man on D!

Saw Ralph Sampson, putting on Steph Curry like 3 pt shooting exhibitions too! Back in the 80's!

 

LOL sounds like me playing my best recreational tennis in my 30s so for the hell of it I entered like the lowest level of a city tournament for bleeps and giggles. Love and love …. the pace of the balls coming back was a rude awakening first match. So much for that.

 

I played tennis at a professional level and reached the top 100 at 20 years of age. I then blew out my knee in my sleep rolling over during a dream - tore my anterior and interior cartilage alongside my ACL, MCL and PCL. At that time the operation was a full reconstruction and it took me 18 months to rehab fully.

Unfortunately in the mid 2000s, rehab wasn’t where it is today and my movement patterns overcompensated on my right hip. I had to have surgery to resurface the ball and socket that had started developing spurs. There was also referral back pain referral that they recommended back surgery for.

I lost about 10% of my top line agility from all the operations and that was enough to take me from a good defensive player at 6’6 to a below average defender on the tour. It meant I could no longer play with a margin of safety and had to go for winners and end points quicker so my unforced errors rose. Even though I was still a very good offensive player I could no longer hope to shoot for the top of the game and would most likely ping pong between top 70 as a best case and top 300 on a bad day.

I’ve picked up a racquet less than 10 times since I stopped playing. I won a local tournament 2 years ago after not swinging a racquet for over 5 years with the best amateur locals in the city - these guys have coaches and train regularly. I wiped the floor with them without really getting out of second gear.

All in all it’s to say, the distance between a bench warmer who made the NBA and Michael Jordan is closer than the distance between a local playground hero and a scrub on an nba roster. The skill level in professional sport is so insane it’s hard to compute for the average person. The regular person also doesn’t understand how much goes into it, for me personally, I trained 6 hours a day almost every day for 13 years straight. I can hit my serve on a drink coaster anywhere in the service box to this day because I use to do 1000 serves a day. That’s why you see Ben Simmons draining 3’s from 5 feet behind the 3 pt line in the offseason.

 

Damn that's too bad svtzr ..... what a freak occurrence and shame to have done your knee like that in a dream!