Jarred Vanderbilt still not cleared for contact drills, not yet fully sprinting or jumping
While most of the reports and updates on Jarred Vanderbilt have been positive, there is still
The Lakers have not yet provided an official update on Jarred Vanderbilt — that is due to come at the beginning of next week — but the latest informal one is the first that hasn’t largely been an optimistic one.
At the team’s practice on Friday, Dave McMenamin of ESPN reported one of the more informative updates on Vando, even though it was barely any good news.
Jarred Vanderbilt has still not been cleared for any contact drills and continues to work his way towards full sprinting and jumping in his reconditioning program. He went through an individual workout at UCLA Health Training Center today while the Lakers held a team practice.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 5, 2024
Now, if you want a glass-half-full approach, a lot of that could change when the Lakers re-evaluate him at the beginning of next week. The target date has been mid-April so it’s not entirely out of the realm that he’s still on that same trajectory.
However, it’s hard to come away from that tweet feeling great about his chances of returning soon. If he isn’t sprinting or jumping, let alone participating in contact drills, then he is not close to returning. And the Lakers are down to only five regular season games remaining.
What we do know is that, for better or for worse, Vando will play through pain if necessary to get back on the court. When he last returned from injury, he played through pain in the early stages because he believed the team was a title contender and wanted to help push them up to or over the edge as much as he could.
However, the Lakers have made a multi-year commitment to him and there might need to start being serious considerations about if it’s in everyone’s best interests to bring him back this season. At the very least, there should be no urgency to rush him back. The Lakers are playing fantastic basketball without him and integrating him is going to be tough.
As much as he raises the ceiling of the Lakers, we saw when he returned last time that if he’s playing injured, that is not the case. There should be no doubt that he is fully healthy before returning.
This is a lot of speculation off one tweet, but nothing about that tweet felt good to read and should cause some questions to be asked, if they haven’t been already.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.