Lakers newsletter: Jarred Vanderbilt is back, but will he help?

Hey everyone, I’m Dan Woike and welcome back to the Times’ Lakers Newsletter, where we’re marching toward trade season with the team about to get back an important rotation player ahead of a tough stretch of schedule. “It’s been a long journey, tough process, but I’m excited just to be in the position I’m in right now,” Vanderbilt said Wednesday in his first interview since media day in late September. Details around the injury still are scarce — and there still are some questions, namely about Rob Pelinka’s preseason claim that the Lakers had “a lot of optimism” that Vanderbilt would be playing “when the real games start.” Wednesday, Vanderbilt said the long recovery wasn’t any longer than he expected, though knee swelling in December briefly stalled his comeback. And, like we’ve detailed in this space repeatedly, the chances of the Lakers dealing Vanderbilt are severely hampered because of his injury history and the widely expected tax on including Vanderbilt in a deal. In case you missed it Roki Sasaki is down with L.A. New Dodgers pitcher learns city’s fingers sign at Lakers game LeBron says Lakers must play near-perfect to win: ‘That’s the way our team is constructed’ Clippers show Lakers all the things they aren’t in first Intuit Dome rivalry game Lakers ready to see Clippers’ new home, if they can get into it LeBron James waved at young fan sitting courtside at Lakers game.