JJ Redick drops truth bomb on Jarred Vanderbilt benching

LOS ANGELES – During the course of an NBA season, lineups are rotations are often fluid due to injuries, absences, trades and roster signings/cuts. For the Los Angeles Lakers, they have had a fairly healthy rotation since the return of LeBron James who missed the first 14 games of the season. Unfortunately for Jarred Vanderbilt, that’s come with him being benched. Prior to the Lakers’ game against the Phoenix Suns on Monday, head coach JJ Redick explained his decision to take Vanderbilt out of the rotation.

“He’s been a pro, he’s been great. In the most recent ‘stay ready’ that he had this week, he was great. He’s been a great teammate, so no surprise there. I had communicated to him even before LeBron came back, that there were certain things that he needed to be able to do consistently to play,” Redick said. “And that there was potentially going to be a roster crunch because we probably were going to play a nine-man rotation, and that was just the reality.”

In terms of the Lakers’ frontcourt rotation, Deandre Ayton is the starting center with LeBron James and Rui Hachimura the starting forwards. Off the bench, JJ Redick has used Jaxson Hayes as the backup center and Jake LaRavia as the backup forward. And since Maxi Kleber has been healthy, Redick has used him in the rotation as well.

But Redick was clear that as the season progresses, Jarred Vanderbilt’s early benching does not necessarily mean that he would not have a place in the Lakers’ rotation again.

“It doesn’t mean that he’s not going to be back in the rotation at some point, whether we’re healthy or whether we’re missing a couple of guys. When we’re winning games, it’s hard to redo the rotation mid-winning streak. So we’re looking at everything, and there were some lineup combinations when we were injured that we had to go away from,” Redick said. “And he was caught up as sort of an innocent bystander in some ways to that. I certainly have empathy for him, and it’s not a fun situation to be in as a coach and certainly not a fun situation for him to be in as a player.”

The Lakers defense has been sort of average this season when compared to the rest of the NBA, and that’s one area where Vanderbilt has shined. When it comes to the regular rotation players, Vanderbilt actually has the highest defensive rating on the team at 111.0, as per StatMuse.

But where Vanderbilt has struggled at times is being able to provide consistent offense. Vanderbilt has never been a prolific scorer during his career, but he hasn’t been able to consistently knock down the open shot, especially from three-point range, when teams have dared him to shoot.

He’s shooting only 28.6 percent from three-point range this season. Back before the season started, Vanderbilt stressed being able to knock those shots down as a means of fitting in with the Lakers’ elite playmakers.

The last time Vanderbilt played was back on Nov. 15 during the Lakers’ win against the Milwaukee Bucks. He played a little over seven minutes and finished with one rebound and one assist without taking a single shot. James came back the following game and he has been out of the rotation since.

Vanderbilt still has one more year left on his contract after this, and then a player option for 2027-28. Although he is benched in the immediacy, he has skills that can help the Lakers. It just remains to be seen when he’ll get his shot again.