When the calendar switched over to 2024, the 36-30 Los Angeles Lakers got hit hard by the injury bug.
To be fair, the two most disruptive injuries this season have been lingering off and on for much of the year. Los Angeles reserve point guard Gabe Vincent has been available for a scant five games due to a left knee effusion.
The 6’3″ vet, 27, inked a three-year, $33 million contract last summer thanks to a run to the NBA Finals as the starting point guard for the Miami Heat (they would go on to fall to two-time MVP center Nikola Jokic and his Denver Nuggets, claiming their first-ever NBA title).
Los Angeles general manager Rob Pelinka brought the UC Santa Barbara alum back to Southern California with the hopes that he’d be a slightly-better-shooting version of Dennis Schröder.
Schröder, who’s spent two non-consecutive seasons with Los Angeles, departed for more lucrative pastures over the summer, joining the Toronto Raptors on a two-year, $25.4 million deal.
He’s since been traded to the Brooklyn Nets.
Vincent, unfortunately, has not been healthy enough to serve as the solid point-of-attack defender and helpful supplemental passer and shooter that Pelinka was surely hoping he’d be.
When he has played, he’s averaged just 5.4 points on a meager .375/.118/.500 shooting splits, three assists, 1.2 steals and one rebound. He was clearly playing hurt, and eventually had to be shut down for further treatment.
The pesky left knee issue eventually yielded a scope. He’s still on the mend. According to Khobi Price of The Orange County Register, head coach Darvin Ham revealed that Vincent has been given the green light to engage in non-contact drills. It’s an encouraging development, to say the least!
Vincent’s not the only oft-hurt Laker this season. Defense-first combo forward Jarred Vanderbilt has appeared in just 29 games this season, struggling with a right mid-foot sprain. Vanderbilt has been on the shelf since February 3rd. He’s averaging a scant 5.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists this year, but the modest output belies his real value as perhaps the club’s most versatile defender.
According to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, the 6’8″ Kentucky product continues to improve, but has yet to advance to even non-contact work just yet:
Time is running out for LA. The NBA play-in tournament is just a month away.
One wonders how much Vincent or Vanderbilt will be able to ramp up to postseason form with whatever limited regular season run they do wind up getting.
