Two nights after a plus-22 season debut against the Clippers, Jarred Vanderbilt played 12 minutes in Friday’s 112-95 loss at Golden State and never took a shot. Asked at Friday’s shootaround what he could help the Lakers with, he told Yahoo Sports’ Khobi Price: “Just the rebounding aspect, the physicality aspect.” The Lakers have a real hole on the glass, and his claim deserves a straight answer.
The Glass Is His Job, and the Lakers Need It Done
Start with the problem. As of Friday the Lakers ranked last in offensive rebounding percentage and second-to-last in both overall and defensive rebounding percentage, per Yahoo Sports. A team that can’t finish defensive possessions or create second chances needs exactly the skill Vanderbilt is known for.
The one-game sample backs him up. In the Clippers win, the Lakers grabbed 37.5% of their offensive rebounding chances with Vanderbilt on the court, compared with a 25.4% rate without him. He also handled the defensive assignment: Vanderbilt guarded Brook Lopez, and JJ Redick said the Lakers used halftime film to highlight his work preventing a post entry.
Kevon Looney has already fallen out of the rotation, with Vanderbilt taking his place. Pairing him with Sandro Mamukelashvili covers his biggest weakness, giving the Lakers a way to use Vanderbilt’s defense alongside a big man who can shoot. Even in Friday’s loss, his box score shows two offensive rebounds and three assists in 12:37.
JJ Redick Didn’t Want This, and the Shooting Is Why
The other side has evidence too. Before the season, Jovan Buha said on Buha’s Block that Redick “clearly does not view him as a rotation player and does not plan on using him as a rotation player.” Before the Clippers game, Redick admitted that it was not ideal to play Vanderbilt at backup center, but that the situation might call for it. The minutes came from a compressed stretch of three games in four nights.
Last season shows how this can go wrong. He lost his spot in early March, after a stretch in which he played no more than 12 minutes in any of his final five appearances and shot 36.4 percent. Friday added another warning: he went -8 without a field-goal attempt, and Golden State’s reserves outscored the Lakers’ 50-7.
A big man who doesn’t shoot lets defenses ignore him, and a team built around Luka Dončić pays for that in the half court.
Twelve to Twenty Minutes, and Nothing More
The case against is real, but it argues about his ceiling, not this job. No one serious is suggesting Vanderbilt start or close games. The question is who soaks up the minutes when Walker Kessler sits, and the Lakers have already tried Looney there and gotten worse results.
So yes: Vanderbilt fits a narrow role as the backup big next to Mamukelashvili, for 12 to 20 minutes a night, and his minutes should depend on matchups. Against big, physical frontcourts that beat the Lakers on the glass, he plays. Against teams with five shooters, where his lack of a shot hurts more, he may not.
That’s a lower bar than the four-year, $48 million extension he signed in 2023 once implied. It’s still a bar he clears today.
The opposing case has a clear test. If the Lakers’ scoring in Vanderbilt’s minutes falls far enough to cancel out the extra possessions he creates, his rebounding stops being worth it. Two games can’t settle that. Friday’s zero-shot outing is the first piece of evidence on that side, and for now his rebounding outweighs it.
Sources: Khobi Price of Yahoo Sports; Jovan Buha of Buha’s Block
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