The Los Angeles Lakers will finally have their full stable of forwards available for the first time this season on Saturday. Neither Rui Hachimura nor Jarred Vanderbilt is on the injury report for the Lakers' matchup with the Houston Rockets, the former recovered from a nasal fracture and the latter set to make his 2023-24 debut after missing the first five weeks of the season with a heel injury.
“Rui Hachimura (nasal fracture) and Jarred Vanderbilt (left heel) are both available for the Lakers game against Houston on Saturday, the team says. It will be Vanderbilt’s season debut after missing the first 20 games,” ESPN's Dave McMenamin wrote Friday afternoon on Twitter.
Hachimura broke his nose in Los Angeles' hard-fought loss to the Dallas Mavericks on November 22nd. He had corrective surgery two days later, after which the Lakers announced Hachimura was set to miss at least the next week of play.
Vanderbilt, meanwhile, hasn't taken the floor in 2023-24 after being dogged by left heel bursitis throughout the preseason. He was cleared by team medical personnel for basketball activities on November 13th.
Lakers' depth, defense is much-improved with Rui Hachimura, Jarred Vanderbilt
Los Angeles' depth has been absolutely decimated since Hachimura broke his nose. Cam Reddish has been among the most pleasant individual surprises of the season league-wide, initially helping offset the lengthy absences of both Vanderbilt and the still-sidelined Gabe Vincent, but he's missed four of the last five games with a groin injury.
Hachimura going down pushed the Lakers' roster to its brink of late, with Darvin Ham largely relegated to an eight-man rotation with Christian Wood and Jaxson Hayes joining Austin Reaves off the bench. Max Christie has started next to D'Angelo Russell in the backcourt in wake of Reddish's injury.
No NBA team could successfully withstand the absence of three, let alone four, surefire rotation players for an extended period. Taking the statuses of Hachimura, Vanderbilt, Reddish and Vincent into account, Los Angeles' hideous 44-point loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday at least makes more logical sense. The team's disappointing defense through November does, too.
Vanderbilt is the Lakers' most impactful game-by-game defender not named Anthony Davis, a multi-position stopper who cleans the glass about as well as any non-traditional big in basketball. Hachimura isn't on Vanderbilt's level defensively, but took marked strides on that side of the ball after arriving in Los Angeles via trade last season, even faring well at times battling Nikola Jokic in the Western Conference Finals.
The simplest distillation of Vanderbilt and Hachimura's tandem value to the Lakers? More versatile size next to Davis and LeBron James, perhaps the driving force behind the purple-and-gold's surprise run to the Western Conference Finals last season. The additions of Reddish and Taurean Prince, even if he doesn't play up to his physical stature, gives Ham even more dynamic size to work with on either or both sides of the ball. Expect Los Angeles' 15th-ranked defensive rating to improve with Vanderbilt, especially, back in the fold.
The Lakers probably aren't top-tier title contenders as currently constructed. Now that they're finally getting close to full-strength, though, at least they'll be able to say so for sure as the February 9th trade deadline looms far on the horizon.
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