The Los Angeles Lakers played 10 games from Nov. 18 to Dec. 10 where Jarred Vanderbilt was mostly an afterthought in the rotation. That was a massive mistake and JJ Redick may have fully come around to that idea.
Vanderbilt only appeared in one game during that aforementioned stretch. The Lakers forward played just over three minutes on Dec. 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers. Vando would hit a turning point in the season shortly after.
In the Lakers' last 17 games, Vanderbilt has averaged 22.1 minutes for the team. The statistics have been modest on the surface, but his impact has been clear. The latter was obvious when listening to Redick talk after the Lakers' convincing 110-93 win over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday.
"When our team is at our best, we have guys that star in their roles without necessarily scoring the basketball," Redick said. "...Vando, now has had, basically, a month-long stretch where he's really, outside [of] a couple games, just starred in his role."
Jarred Vanderbilt’s breakout highlights the Lakers mistake Redick now understands
Redick discussed how different starring in your role is for someone like Vanderbilt by comparison to his superstar teammates. For Luka Doncic, scoring the basketball is what puts the paycheck on the table. For Vanderbilt, it's more about effort, energy, and defense.
The Lakers head coach really praised the rebounding on their own end for his forward. Redick thought Vanderbilt had done a great job of fighting on the defensive glass to secure plenty of stops through his effort in crowded spaces. It stood out as an underdiscussed aspect of defensive rebounding for the second-year coach.
Plus/minus is not always the most telling stat, in Redick's opinion. However, Sunday night's instance of Vanderbilt finishing as a +25 was one of the moments where it was for the Lakers coach.
Since getting reinserted into the rotation for Los Angeles, Vanderbilt has averaged 5.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 0.7 steals per game. The high-motor forward has shot 52.7 percent from the field and 32.4 percent from beyond the arc.
To Redick's point, the numbers do not offer justice to how much of a positive Vanderbilt has been for the Lakers. For a team struggling to find consistent defensive effort, the 26-year-old is not one of the players who can be faulted much in that regard. Vando pops on the screen with regularity.
Redick should not be short of having playing time to spare for Vanderbilt moving forward. There have only been seven Lakers to average over 20 minutes per game during the last 15 games for Los Angeles. Vando has been one of them, and shrinking his opportunities would not help anyone.