The Los Angeles Lakers are off to a sparkling 3-0 start to their 2024-25 season under new head coach JJ Redick. The club is looking reinvigorated after two years under now-Milwaukee Bucks head coach Darvin Ham, with a fresh, movement-heavy offense loaded with 3-point shooting.

The team has been without two critical role players for all of the season thus far, big men Jarred Vanderbilt and Christian Wood, who continue to recuperate from long-term ailments.

Vanderbilt, 25, is in the first season of a four-year, $48 million extension he inked with Los Angeles last year.

He only suited up for 29 contests and was often hampered in those games. In 2023-24, he was able to average 5.2 points on 51.8 shooting from the field and 66.7 percent shooting from the charity stripe, 4.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.2 swipes a night.

During a recent installment of ESPN’s Brian Windhorst And The Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN Lakers beat reporter Dave McMenamin unpacked the source of Vanderbilt’s absence for most of last year — and the start of this one.

“I believe it was the right foot that caused them to miss most of the season after that Celtics game where they had that improbable win at TD Garden,” McMenamin said.

“He had the right foot, the mid foot issue taken care of, and the doctor [said], ‘So long as we’re going in, you’re going to be off your feet anyway, let’s go look in that left foot,’ and there was a bone spur in there.”

McMenamin reveals that Vanderbilt is still on the mend, but has hurdles to clear before he can don the purple and gold in a game just yet this season.

“My understanding is that rehab has gone well, but he hasn’t really tested it yet at all,” McMenamin added.

Vanderbilt, when healthy, is probably the Lakers’ best perimeter defender. In his absence, Redick has leaned even more heavily on the defense of point guard Gabe Vincent, another pricey role player who missed most of the 2023-24 season.

Since joining Los Angeles in 2023 as a free agent, Vincent has appeared in just 14 regular season games through two seasons.

He’s averaging 3.1 points on .306/.114/.500 shooting splits, 1.6 assists, 0.9 rebounds and 0.9 steals, in 19.1 minutes per. But he’s not out there for his offense right now.