This is a difficult time in Los Angeles, with fire impacting massive portions of the city, unfathomable loss already and great uncertainty still ahead.
How it influences the NBA calendar isn’t a priority concern, but that said at least as of Wednesday night, there has been no announcement about whether the Lakers and Charlotte will actually be playing tonight at the Crypt. (It seems like a bad idea to do anything that puts people in their cars and has the potential to require the attention of first responders, especially since it’s abundantly clear that this crisis is not going to end today, but we’ll see what the league chooses to do.)
Our thoughts are everyone in the community, especially those directly affected, including our colleague Darian Vaziri, host of Locked On Clippers, whose family home was lost in the fire.
In this episode, we talk about the human impact of the fires, including on the Lakers. JJ Redick’s family, for example, was evacuated from the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on Tuesday. From there, it’s a conversation about Jared Vanderbilt, who finally, truly, this-time-for-real seems near a return from his multiple foot surgeries. The Lakers will have more to say in a week or so, but Vando is back on the floor doing full court work, with contact.
That’s good news for the team, especially as we get closer to the trade deadline, which is a month away now. To see Vanderbilt back in the lineup, get a feel for what he’s capable of doing, how he fits and so on, gives Rob Pelinka more data points as he tries to allocate the team’s limited trade capital as effectively as possible.
—BK
