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The decision leaves a handful of players who were drafted in the second round of June’s NBA draft with the potential option to return to school. Vanderbilt wing Tyler Nickel (No. 47 overall to the Knicks), Purdue guard Braden Smith (No. 38 by the Bulls), St. John’s guard Dillion Mitchell (No. 40 to the Celtics) and Florida State’s Lajae Jones (No. 54 to the Warriors) are all apparently eligible to play college basketball next year.
The Lakers have been willing to trade Vanderbilt, according to multiple sources who spoke with the Post who were granted anonymity so they could speak freely, as well as other players on the roster in order to create more roster-building optionality. The Cavaliers also have strong interest in Kuminga, a source said.
The fourth Laker on our list, over one-quarter of the trades logged into our trade machine of late have included Jarred Vanderbilt, a 27-year-old defensive-minded forward. Vanderbilt has two years left on his contract, worth $25.7 million, with a player option on the second year. That's not a grossly offensive salary, but it's also not some major value deal, either, not with the way Vanderbilt produces.
Pete Thamel: Vanderbilt All-SEC point guard Tyler Tanner has withdrawn from the NBA Draft and decided to return to Vanderbilt, he tells ESPN. He earned honorable mention All-American honors last year, averaging 19.5 points and 5.1 assists per game.
Vanderbilt needed stitches postgame because the bone in his dislocated pinkie finger broke skin, sources said. Lakers assistant athletic trainer Octavio Marquez Montoya and coach JJ Redick walked the length of the court to attend to Vanderbilt, who was on the opposite baseline.
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Joe Tipton: NEWS: Vanderbilt star guard Tyler Tanner has declared for the NBA Draft while maintaining his college eligibility, he told @On3. The 6-foot sophomore averaged 19.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 2.4 steals per game this season, earning First-Team All-SEC and SEC All-Defensive Team honors.
Jarred Vanderbilt is a career 28.8% shooter from beyond the arc. He has shot over 30% in a full season exactly once, and it was the season the Lakers acquired him via trade from the Utah Jazz. That was his best season both in terms of offensive and defensive advanced metrics, as with higher shooting percentages came more playing time and greater impact. LaRavia spoke about the difference in the player he used to scout for on opposing teams versus the player he sees now, and the strides Vanderbilt has made as a shooter. “Yeah, I mean it’s gotten much better,” LaRavia said of Vanderbilt’s shooting. “I know early on in my career, we didn’t respect him as a shooter. But fair to see that he can shoot the ball very well now. He’s been hitting shots. I don’t know if he tweaked something, but yeah it looks really good now and it’s going in.”
Jon Chepkevich: Vanderbilt’s AJ Hoggard will join the New Orleans Pelicans for NBA Summer League, I’m told. The 6’3 ¾" guard averaged 8.8 PTS, 4.6 AST, 2.7 REB across five NCAA seasons. Playmaking guard with positional size who led NCAA DI in AST% in 2022 and earned back-to-back PIT nods.
After testing the draft waters this spring, forward AK Okereke will remove his name from the draft pool and transfer from Cornell to Vanderbilt, he tells Jon Chepkevich of DraftExpress (Twitter link). Okereke had a solid junior season in 2024/25, putting up 13.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists per game while making 59.5% of his field goal attempts.
“It’s been great,” says Vanderbilt of playing with James. “Being able to learn and be around and be teammates with one of the best players to ever play, and just watching him each and every day, it’s been inspiring. He’s been—even at this age—leading our team ever since I’ve been here. Just being able to watch his approach and how you take care of yourself, how you approach the game, super dope.”
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“It takes two minutes to do it,” Vanderbilt tells FOS. “And that’s a lot of money. I don’t care how much money you make. That’s still a lot of money. Especially when all you have to do is fill out a little form. And I feel like I earned that money as well.” Vanderbilt’s comments are representative of how most players feel. Asked by FOS why they filed for the House settlement, the majority responded the same way. “Free money is free money,” Lakers center Jaxson Hayes tells FOS. Others, especially the veterans who left college before 2021 and missed out on the NIL era, have a more serious take. “It’s not free,” Nets guard Cam Johnson says. “We worked for it.”
As for the excursion as a whole, at some point during the season, team president Koby Altman decided the Cavs would travel early to Nashville for some fun and some practice. They attended Vanderbilt’s SEC tournament game Wednesday, held a team dinner and some players and coaches enjoyed Nashville’s famous Broadway district. “Koby’s a great driver of these things,” Atkinson said. “And man, that was one thing we talked about in the beginning of the season, when the season (gets) so long, it’s, how do we keep our guys fresh? How do we keep them engaged? … I do feel a little bit right now with our guys like there’s a little bit of a monotony setting in. And so it was perfect timing for the trip.”
FIVE YEARS EARLIER, Altman had selected Garland with the No. 5 pick in the 2019 draft despite having only 4½ games of film to study from his freshman year at Vanderbilt, as a knee injury cut short his lone college season. It was a bet on the talent of a four-time state champion in high school who had wowed the Cavaliers' brass with his skill in a private workout. That gamble on Garland paid off. He emerged as an All-Star as a 22-year-old in 2021-22, when he averaged 21.7 points and 8.6 assists as the young leader of a team that doubled its win total from the previous season, emboldening the front office to pull off a blockbuster trade for Mitchell in an attempt to expedite the process of building a contender in Cleveland. Garland put up similar numbers in his first campaign playing alongside Mitchell before his production dipped last season (18.0 PPG, 6.5 APG).