Los Angeles Lakers guard Gabe Vincent has been dealing with left knee effusion, forcing him to miss all but the first four games of the regular season.
He was supposed to be re-evaluated this week and although that hasn’t happened yet, Darvin Ham provided a positive update on Vincent before Saturday’s game against the Houston Rockets.
“He’s progressing along. Not as of yet, but he’s progressing really, really good,” Ham said.
Ham would also go on to reveal what Vincent has been able to do so far in his rehab.
“He’s been running on an [anti-gravity treadmill]. He’s doing some just conditioning, obviously in that regard, some normal weight-lifting stuff, shooting shots. But that’s it.”
This is good news for the Lakers, who have been extremely shorthanded through the first quarter of the regular season. Even though Vincent is progressing though, it likely will still be some time before he is able to return as the organization will want to ensure he’s 100% healthy to not risk further injury.
Vincent was the Lakers’ big signing of the offseason, using their non-taxpayer mid-level exception to pry him away from the Miami Heat to replace Dennis Schroder as their lead guard off the bench.
So far though, the Lakers have not been able to reap the benefits of that signing as Vincent missed time in the preseason with lower back soreness. After playing in the first four games of the regular season, Vincent went down with the knee issue and has been out ever since.
In addition to Vincent, the Lakers have also been without key pieces like Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura and Cam Reddish for long stretches so far this season. Because of that, LeBron James recently admitted that he has no clue who the Lakers are as a team yet despite being 11-9 through their first 20 games. Those three were all able to return on Saturday though, which was good to see.
In Vincent’s absence, guys like D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves and Max Christie have picked up the slack at the guard position with rookie Jalen Hood-Schifino even getting some time lately. What the Lakers have been missing though is a point of attack defender that can knock down timely shots, which is exactly what Vincent was signed to provide.
A lot of fans have been frustrated with how long it is taking injured players like Vincent to get back, especially when the team loses games they are capable of winning.
Ham recently emphasized that they will not rush back any players though, sticking with the process they have in place of ensuring guys are fully healthy to not risk more injuries down the line.
“He’s been running on an [anti-gravity treadmill]. He’s doing some just conditioning, obviously in that regard, some normal weight-lifting stuff, shooting shots. But that’s it.”
That doesn’t sound like he’s close to coming back. The fact that he still needs an anti-gravity treadmill leads me to believe he can’t put much weight on the knee and I’m thinking we might be at least a month away from seeing him on the floor. Instead of looking at the non-Lebron minutes, I might start looking at our Non-D.Russell minutes.
Gabe is looking more and more like he could be filler in a trade before he ever puts a purple and gold uniform on again.
We’re gonna need a reliable pg..
Having our two point guards – Russell and Vincent – also being our top two trade pieces over – Reaves and Hachimura – complicates any move we make that doesn’t bring back a point guard.
What makes it even tougher is there aren’t many point guards better than Russell available. Lakers are likely to end up with Reaves or somebody who isn’t as good a point guard.
One possible solution I like is LeBron at point guard on offense with Reddish and Vanderbilt defending opposing guards so LeBron can defend a power forward. I think that could be our best option san a blockbuster trade.