Across the first four games of the regular season, Jarred Vanderbilt found himself entirely outside of the Los Angeles Lakers’ rotation, with head coach JJ Redick opting for Sandro Mamukelashvili and Kevon Looney as his backup big men behind Walker Kessler. But Looney struggled mightily in those appearances. His insufficient scoring and passing were stunting the offense while his lack of size and declining mobility rendered him an issue defensively.
So, Redick gave Looney’s rotation spot to Vanderbilt
against the Los Angeles Clippers Wednesday night and the veteran forward, in his first minutes of the season, delivered. His motor, range and quickness defensively caused problems and the Lakers outscored the Clippers by 22 points during his 21 minutes. In particular, Redick cited Vanderbilt’s ability to front the post against Brook Lopez as a crucial contribution.
Following the victory, Collin Sexton— who previously spent half a season alongside Vanderbilt with the Utah Jazz in 2022-23 before Vanderbilt was dealt to Los Angeles — praised Vanderbilt’s even-keeled mentality while he rode the bench early on and how his approach benefits the whole team.
“Vando is somebody that is always going to stay ready … You never see any bad days for Vando. He’s always going to be a leader,” Sexton told reporters. “He’s always going to come in and be that vet and be that good person whether he plays no minutes or he plays 48 minutes. He’s always going to be the same person and I feel like that’s one of the things that helps in the locker room is we’re all for the team and tonight, he was definitely for the team. He came in and he brought that juice right away and I feel like he was a huge, huge impact in us winning.”
Given Vanderbilt’s impressive 2026-27 debut and Looney’s poor showing through four games, it seems pretty likely Vanderbilt will continue garnering rotation minutes for the time being. His next chance comes Friday on the road when the Lakers kick off their NBA Cup Group Play against the Golden State Warriors at 7 p.m.
You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.
