Jarred Vanderbilt has missed some time due to injuries in the 2024-25 NBA season for the Los Angeles Lakers. While most players who are sidelined focus more on taking care of their bodies, Vanderbilt maximized his time by developing his jump shot.
The 6-foot-8 forward isn’t the most reliable outside shooter from beyond the arc in the Lakers roster. While he can knock it down occasionally, defenses don’t usually pay attention to him making shots from deep. This has been one of his biggest weaknesses. Fortunately for Vanderbilt, he used his time off the court to develop his outside stroke.
“I did a lot of shooting, whether it was obviously spot shots and just form shooting, kind of retooling some things,” Vando said. “Yeah, that’s pretty much all I could do in the recovery process. I feel like I did put a lot of work in but half of it is just trusting the work. I’ve been shooting corner shots every day but you gotta trust it when you get in that position… That was mostly just trusting it and being shot-ready and ready for opportunities. That’s always gonna lead to results.”
Jarred Vanderbilt talked about how much he worked on his jump shot when he was out with injuries.https://t.co/Afhuwb5a11
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) March 12, 2025
This season, the defensive forward is shooting 34.8% from beyond the arc on 1.2 attempts. The frontcourt player is showing an improved outside shot as he’s logging his career-best from deep. Still, his best asset is his ability to defend any position, and it has helped the Lakers in their quest to be a title contender.
NBA agent says there’s no timetable on Los Angeles Lakers star’s return to the court
The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a blow to their roster on their 111-101 loss against the Boston Celtics on Saturday. All-Star forward LeBron James sustained a groin injury during the game and had to exit the floor. After he was evaluated, the Lakers confirmed James would miss at least one to two weeks.
On Tuesday, his agent, Rich Paul, appeared as a guest on “The Pat McAfee Show.” He was asked about James’ injury, and Paul didn’t want to put a timetable on the star player’s injury.
“I think you have to manage it. Obviously you see the reports that are out there and you have to pay attention to LeBron in terms of his postgame interview. He knows his body better than anybody. So we kind of have to follow him there,” Paul said.
"LeBron James knows his body better than anybody and he's played a lot of basketball..
When you have this type of injury you have to manage it properly..
I won't put a timetable on when he'll be back"@RichPaul4 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/fE9nGiuUPE
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) March 11, 2025
“I won’t put a timetable on it, I’ll let LeBron decide what’s to be done there. He has a great trainer and medical staff with the Lakers and Mike Mancias leads that for him. I’ll just be lockstep with those guys.”
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen on Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
