Lakers Injury Report: Darvin Ham Offers Disappointing Update On Jarred Vanderbilt

This hurts the Lakers' hopes of a playoff run quite a bit.

David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Uncertainty about the Lakers' season even after 81 games goes beyond just their seeding, play-in status, and opponent. It extends to injuries, specifically to a critical role player that could swing a playoff series.

Darvin Ham on if there are any updates on Jarred Vanderbilt this week: “No new updates.”

When asked if he knows when there will be an update, Ham said, “We’ll see. He had a good workout today. So we’ll see.”

— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) April 12, 2024

Vanderbilt (foot) has been out for some time, injuring it while trying to plant against the Celtics in February.

Even without him, the Lakers have been playing some of their best ball of the year, but their questionable defense has reared its ugly head in most of their losses. Come playoff (or even play-in) time, against the league's top offenses, playing without him will present a serious issue for LA.

For example, LA has a reasonable shot of squaring off with the Golden State Warriors or Sacramento Kings (or both) in the play-in tournament, two teams that Vanderbilt is highly valuable against, as he takes on the challenging matchups of Stephen Curry and De'Aaron Fox.

Without him, LA turns to generally subpar contributors who lack on the offensive end, so while players like Gabe Vincent, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Cam Reddish can defend at a reasonable level, their poor offense trades off with LA's best strengths: size and spacing.

It's worth holding out a little bit more hope on Vanderbilt given Ham's comment about him ahving a "good workout today," but even if he's medically cleared to return, levying an expectation on him that he can play All-NBA level defense while lacking conditioning and recent repetitions feels highly unlikely.