Lakers Nation Cries Tears of Joy as Bronny James Join Forces With 25-Year-Old Star’s Comeback Journey
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Bronny James has been on the court in two of the Lakers’ past three games after only playing one game for the Los Angeles Lakers in December. Last month, Bronny was constantly shifting between the Lakers and their G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers. The former USC Trojan had started to find his rhythm as he scored double-figures in six of his last seven G League games.
On January 7, the Lakers lost to the Dallas Mavericks 118-97, its second straight defeat. To make matters worse, both LeBron and Anthony Davis were playing for the Lakers, but Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving were out. JJ Redick’s squad could not live up to the expectation in any of the aspects, and Bronny came in for the final 1:26 when the game was mostly out of hand. The next day, Los Angeles took a call on Bronny.
With South Bay facing in-state foe, the Stockton Kings, on Saturday, Bronny was assigned to the G League once again. And who he will join? None other than Los Angeles forward Jarred Vanderbilt, who is yet to see the court this season after he underwent procedures on both feet during the offseason. Not only that, last month, he also dealt with knee soreness, which further pushed back the L.A. star’s return date.
However, since then Vanderbilt has been making “real progress” in his rehabilitation process as per head coach JJ Redick. Well, that seems so, as ESPN NBA insider Dave McMenamin has reported today. “Jarred Vanderbilt has been assigned to the South Bay Lakers, the team announced.” Providing some much-needed relief to the Lakers fans.
Vanderbilt being assigned to the South Bay Lakers is a sign that we could soon see him back in action. He’ll be joining forces with none other than Bronny James and Co. and will have a chance to get in some extra court time as he progresses. Furthermore, the Lakers have been in desperate need of some defensive reinforcements this season, an area in which the 25-year-old excels.
LA Times’ Lakers beat write Dan Woike reported, “Lakers would like to get him on the court with either the team or G-League before his return. Said plan is for him to come back in ‘small doses.’ Want to build him up for a playoff run.” Redick spoke about Vanderbilt’s progress after practicing on Friday and noted that he’s getting closer to making his 2024-25 season debut.
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Can Jarred Vanderbilt’s return be the game-changer the Lakers need for a deep playoff run?
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“Jarred was able to get two of the last three days, some live action with our South Bay team, which is I think really good for him. We want to get him more exposure to live play against professionals before we set a sort of target date. But it is imminent that he’ll be back with us in the next hopefully few weeks. But again, I think no setbacks, lots of progress. The conditioning, anyways who has played a sport and has been injured for an extended period of time, there’s the confidence that you have to build in your body, and he’s getting there. Each time we’ve exposed him to live play, it’s been better and better. So he’s close,” Reddick said.
But any time a player misses a significant time, teams are generally OK with them slowly getting back up to speed. In this case, L.A. has already decided to put Jarred Vanderbilt on a minutes restriction when he’s back on the court. When healthy, Vanderbilt displays aggressive defending and rebounding skills that will help this team win games. His return could certainly make a big impact on the Lakers, as the fans also seem to be on the same page. Let’s see how they reacted to the news.
Lakers fans go into a frenzy as Jarred Vanderbilt nears his return to the court
Vanderbilt missed the first 20 games of last season with bursitis in his left heel, and he stayed healthy for only two months before being ruled out for the year with a right foot sprain. He got a four-year, $48 million contract extension from the Lakers in September 2023. He has appeared in only 29 of Los Angeles’ 108 games since then.
Vanderbilt became a starter for the Lakers immediately after his arrival in a trade with Utah nearly two years ago, playing a key supporting role in their run to the Western Conference finals. He usually guarded their opponents’ top wing scorer.
Vanderbilt’s return news has filled with excitement as one fan wrote, “Letsssss gooo!!! Vando is back!!!” expressing their feelings. One more fan wrote, “Let’s go omg demon almost home” referring to Vanderbilt returning to L.A. after missing the entire season so far due to injury issues on both of his feet.
Another fan captioned his tweet, “demon soon” and attached an edited collage along with it. The collage featured Vanderbilt with “Welcome to Vando’s vault!” written on it. Further, it featured the likes of Doncic, Ingram, Booker, and a few more who were supposedly locked by the Lakers forward’s defense.
At the same time, another user took the help of a GIF that had “We are back baby” written over it. As he suggested, the Lakers are back and Vanderbilt will help them in their pursuit of making a deep playoff run this season as get closer to the business end. A fan took MJ’s iconic picture with the Larry O’Brien trophy and wrote “Vande and Bronny in the G-League” as he added a bit of humor stating both Bronny and Vanderbilt will be a scary sight for other teams in the G-league.
A follower also stated “Our season starts now” indicating the Lakers look like a real team with the forward closing in on a return. At the moment the Lakers are 20-16 for the season seeded sixth in the West and they need to keep up their good form to remain in playoff contention. And there’s no doubt Vanderbilt’s return will impact their chances as they look to achieve success.
