Switching Jarred Vanderbilt to shooting guard could solve the Lakers’ need to find a game-changing role for him and major minutes for his defense and to improve their backcourt positional size and point-of-attack defense.
Right now, due to the heel injury that’s kept him out of action since the first preseason game, Vanderbilt has already fallen behind James, Davis, Prince, Hachimura, Wood, and Hayes in the tight battle for rare forward minutes. Meanwhile, the Lakers weakest position right now is probably shooting guard, where Austin Reaves is the starter with the potential backups being an inexperienced pair of 20-year olds in Max Christie and Maxwell Lewis.
The reality is the Lakers right now have too many experienced forwards and not enough experienced guards to build an ideal 10-man rotation. Moving Jarred Vanderbilt from forward to guard solves that problem.
The Lakers could then go with their expected starting lineup of Russell, Reaves, Prince, James, and Davis with Vincent, Vanderbilt, Hachimura, Wood, and Hayes being the main backups for each of the five positions.
The Lakers have an opportunity by switching Vanderbilt from forward to guard not only to restore a vital role to a valuable player in danger of losing major minutes but also to improve their backcourt size and POA defense.
Vanderbilt Is Already Playing Guard Defensively
Switching Jarred Vanderbilt from playing small forward or power forward to playing shooting guard would not be a major change for him defensively since the offensive players he usually defends are mostly guards or wings.
What the switch would do is move Vando from forward where his minutes and role are projected to be minimized to a new critical role backing up Austin Reaves at shooting guard and boosting backcourt size and defense.
While Vanderbilt will still face offensive challenges playing shooting guard, it’s important for the Lakers to find a way to keep his elite defense on the court for close to starter minutes. The way to do that is play him at guard.
The Lakers have made major moves to upgrade their offense that could ultimately cost them defensively, like swapping Schroder for Vincent or taking minutes from Vando and giving them to Hachimura and Wood.
Switching Vanderbilt to shooting guard would immediately improve the backcourt defense in the minutes when Austin Reaves is off the court as there’s no question Vando is a dramatically better defender than Christie.
Winning rotations are about having the most productive players on the court as much as possible. The Lakers need an experienced player to back up Austin Reaves and Jarred Vanderbilt needs a new role to embrace.
Vando’s Size and Length Could Dominate Offensively
Moving Jarred Vanderbilt from backup forward to backup shooting guard behind Austin Reaves could be the move that unlocks Vando offensively by putting him in position to dominate guards with his size and athleticism.
While Vanderbilt will have to improve his ball handling and shooting, his elite size and athleticism playing as a guard could be a matchup nightmare for opposing teams to defend in the post and keep off the offensive glass.
Vando should continue to work on improving his three ball but moving him to the two could open up an entirely different kind of offensive game that would not only make him a better player but help the Lakers win games.
Now that the Lakers have signed Jarred Vanderbilt to a 4-year extension, they need to find a way to take better advantage of his elite defense while putting him in positions where he also will not be a liability offensively. Switching to shooting guard would give Vando a massive positional size advantage over his likely defenders, setting up opportunities for him to wear down and get smaller opposing scoring guards in foul trouble
Moving Jarred Vanderbilt to shooting guard could unlock his potential offensively while also improving backcourt positional size and point-of-attack defense, and rebalance the Lakers’ roster front and backcourt.
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While I’m not sure how high this idea is in Coach Ham’s list of things to try I like the outside the box thinking on this one. Vando on D is positionless, he can play in anyone of 4 spots. On offense he just needs to do enough to keep his man engaged. That’s not a huge ask, especially in the regular season. Like many players he may have matchup issues in the playoffs, he’s unique in that he, too, can present the same problem for other teams on defense. We saw him take Ja Morant and, for two games, Steph Curry out of their games. Those 2 games fall behind the LW4 game but were critical in getting them to the WCF.
I’m personally less concerned about where his points come from, three, put-backs, set plays…who cares. He needs to be a double-double machine to start to justify the investment the Lakers made. I think he has that in him and more.
One way to alleviate his shooting is to give him the ball to bring up, especially in transition. While not the second coming of Magic Johnson he could reach Lamar Odom tier as a playmaker and if he gets there watch out.
“While not the second coming of Magic Johnson he could reach Lamar Odom tier as a playmaker and if he gets there watch out”.
Hmm, that is a very important point and very encouraging, Jamie. At least that helps calm me down a bit. I was very nervous about that experiment. It could actually create a whole new dimension to the team.
If he could average 10/10/5 and a steal and a block he won’t win a single award but he will be the kind of glue guy every team needs.
I saw this a few days ago. Vanderbilt cannot shoot. They would have to ensure that the position is called “off-guard” instead of “shooting guard”. I have not been a fan of his play since he joined the Lakers. I admit that Steph Curry was slowed down in the playoff series. But I don’t think Vanderbilt could do that consistently against Curry or other guards as scouting analyses will catch up…scouting reports usually do catch up. Vanderbilt is far from being a Pippen, or a Rodman defender…he’s not even as good a defender as Ruben “Kobe Stopper” Patterson was. As for what I believe his stat line would be if he is the off guard, and gets minutes….I say 10/6/2…..He’ll score the same a little more from the extra playing time, his rebounds will go down as he is now guarding on the perimeter, and his assists will go down because he’s nervous from being the “shooting (LOL) – guard”….and will neither shoot or pass any better than he has so far in his career.