Have Lakers Found A Secret Weapon In Jarred Vanderbilt? Ja Morant, Jake LaRavia Highlight Strong Improvement

5 Min Read
Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

The Lakers need two things desperately for the upcoming season: Defensive prowess and three-point shooting. It looks like they are looking within to see if they can improve their present shooters to an elite level.

One of the names from the roster that is coming up repeatedly is Jarred Vanderbilt. The six-foot-eight power forward has been a consistent defensive force for the team, doing the grunt work and picking up the rebounds. The team has declared that, despite other teams’ interest in him, he will be suiting up for the purple and gold only. Recently, footage of Vanderbilt making shot after shot in training went viral.

“Great feet,” Ja Morant wrote in response to the viral clip where Vanderbilt is showing off his shooting mechanics with teammate Jake LaRavia.

 

The Lakers need all the shooting they can get. Last season, they had a shooting percentage of 36% from the three-point line as a team. That makes them a middle-of-the-pack shooting team. But that does not correspond with their championship dreams. Their current offense is heavily dependent on their star players, Luka Doncic and LeBron James. But they need to have shooting options to solve the spacing issue. If Jarred Vanderbilt can step up in this situation, it will be a big advantage for them.

“I mean, it’s gotten much better. I know early on in my career, we didn’t respect him as a shooter, but it’s fair to say he can shoot the ball very well now. He’s been hitting shots. I don’t know if he tweaked something, but yeah, it looks really good now,” LaRavia told the media.

Is he the secret weapon the Los Angeles Lakers were looking for to complement their top-heavy roster? Let’s break it down.

Vanderbilt has played for four teams in the league. Over that time, he has averaged 5.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.1 assists, while shooting at a rate of 56% from the field and 28.8% from the three-point line.

Last season, his minutes were down to sixteen per game, and he struggled to be part of rotations. But this year, he plans to become an efficient defensive wing who can shoot from the perimeter. However, shooting in a game with pressure on you versus shooting during training with no hands in your face are two very different scenarios. We all saw Ben Simmons drill shot after shot in the offseason and then showcase the same old inabilities during games.

Lakers seven-foot-tall center Christian Koloko said that the coaching staff gave him a green light to shoot in the offseason, but that would be taken away once the season started. Similarly, Vanderbilt will have a small window to prove that he’s a viable offensive option.

His defensive grit points to a hunger for taking up responsibilities. Now, all he needs to do is get his three-point numbers up by five-six percent, where he’s shooting around 33% from the three-point line. He can achieve this by making open shots from the perimeter. Due to his image as an average shooter, he tends to get a lot of open shots. All he needs to do is convert them, and he becomes a much more attractive player for the Lakers to add to their different lineups.

As of now, all we have seen are training camp videos and comments from teammates who mean well. This does not showcase any real potential for him to become a serious three-point threat. He might be able to supplement some of the volume shooting that they need, but someone else will have to become the secret weapon.

Newsletter

Stay up to date with our newsletter on the latest news, trends, ranking lists, and evergreen articles

Follow on Google News

Thank you for being a valued reader of Fadeaway World. If you liked this article, please consider following us on Google News. We appreciate your support.

Share This Article
Chaitanya Dadhwal is an NBA Analyst and Columnist at Fadeaway World from New Delhi, India. He fell in love with basketball in 2018 after seeing James Harden in his prime. He joined the sports journalism world in 2021, one year before finishing his law school in 2022. He attended Jindal Global Law School in Sonipat, India, where his favorite subject was also Sports Law.He transitioned from law to journalism after realizing his true passion for sports and basketball in particular. Even though his journalism is driven by his desire to understand both sides of an argument and give a neutral perspective, he openly admits he is biased towards the Houston Rockets and Arsenal. But that intersection of in-depth analysis and passion helps him simplify the fine print and complex language for his readers.His goal in life is to open his own sports management agency one day and represent athletes. He wants to ensure he can help bridge the gap in equal opportunity for athletes across various sports and different genders playing the same sport.
Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *