Lakers Injury Report: Newly Extended Forward May Miss LA's Season Opener

Not a great start.

One of the highlights of your Los Angeles Lakers' tremendous offseason was power extending forward Jarred Vanderbilt to a four-year, $48 million contract that could keep him under team control through the 2027-28 season (he has a player option for that last year, however). 

The versatile, hyper-athletic defensive specialist was an incredible addition for LA at the deadline, spending much of the second half of the season and into the playoffs guarding the opposing team's best guard/wing, night in, and night out. 

Extending him was pivotal, as it ensures the Lakers have a weapon to use on the defensive side of the ball (beyond Anthony Davis) that is willing to take on any assignment. 

Unfortunately, he's banged up to start the year, and it may be a bit worse than we thought. 

Dealing with a heel injury, Lakers beat reporter Jovan Buha tweeted:

Darvin Ham on if Vanderbilt will be available for opening night in Denver: “We’ll see.”

Vanderbilt will miss Thursday’s preseason game vs. Phoenix and be re-evaluated on Friday.

— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) October 15, 2023

Per Jacob Rude of silverscreenandroll.com, the Lakers are "monitoring soreness," with the trajectory of the injury seeming downward. 

While this is definitely a cause for concern in general, this is part of why the Lakers have so much depth. Between Taurean Prince and Rui Hachimura, the Lakers have more than enough answers at the 3 to cover Vando's minutes.

More importantly, though, is that the injury doesn't appear serious. While the trajectory may be downward, we haven't received news of anything too serious, and that's something to be optimistic about.

Overall, this situation is definitely worth monitoring, but I'd feel cautiously optimistic about the matter at large. Vando is young with next to no injury history and this specific issue appears minor, paired with the Lakers having more than enough depth to make things work.

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