The making of Jarred Vanderbilt, the Lakers’ Dennis Rodman in training

Jarred Vanderbilt was not the most well-known player the Lakers acquired at the trade deadline.

But he has become one of the central figures in the team’s second-half turnaround, @jovanbuha writes.

This is why: https://t.co/Lpc8GDNjlQ pic.twitter.com/iGLPmOAvdb

— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) April 11, 2023

Midway through the third quarter of a Lakers–Mavericks game in Dallas in late February, Jarred Vanderbilt, hounding Luka Dončić near half court, quickly shifts his hips as he reads the ensuing give-and-go action.

As Dončić passes to Tim Hardaway Jr. on the left wing, and Hardaway shovels the ball back to Dončić, Vanderbilt deflects the pass with his 7-foot-1 wingspan. Despite Dončić having inside position to the loose ball, Vanderbilt sneaks past him to tip the ball away, outruns him to save the ball from going out of bounds and launches an over-his-shoulder pass to streaking teammate Troy Brown Jr. for a breakaway layup.

“The ubiquity of Vanderbilt,” shouts ABC’s Mark Jones on the play-by-play, “is really profound right now. He’s everywhere.”

“If you were at the Laker building, this place would be on fire,” analyst Doris Burke proclaims over the replay a minute later.

The sequence, as well as his several key plays just before it, exemplifies Vanderbilt’s rare blend of length, athleticism, IQ, energy and instincts. He plays with an uncommon relentlessness. Crashing the offensive glass. Tipping passes and dribbles. Pressuring ballhandlers. Navigating screens. Switching and rotating at the precise moment — not a beat too early or late. The few mistakes he makes are aggressive ones coaches can live with.

Though Vanderbilt is not the most well-known player among the many trade-deadline additions the Lakers made, he has become one of the central figures in the team’s second-half turnaround. As the Lakers posted the best record in the West and the second-best defense in the league since Feb. 11, Vanderbilt fit in as an ideal frontcourt complement to LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Vanderbilt is also imprinting his all-out style on the rest of the team. Lakers coach Darvin Ham calls him the team’s “Energizer Bunny.” Austin Reaves says he’s “the best defender in the NBA.” D’Angelo Russell, reunited with Vanderbilt after the two were teammates in Minnesota from 2020 to 2022, goes one step further.

“Vando’s making all these Dennis Rodman plays for us,” he says.

For Vanderbilt, playing hard is a skill honed like any other.

“There’s a lot that goes into it,” Vanderbilt told The Athletic. “It’s energy, but it’s being smart with it too. Like, I know who I can pick up. I know when to back up. I know, just reading the scouting report, when I can shoot the gaps and try to go for a steal. Going certain directions on whoever the player is. So it’s a lot of film and studying that goes into it as well.”