Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers had their season ended by the Denver Nuggets for the second straight season in 2024. The team narrowly made the postseason as the eighth seed despite impressive and healthy seasons from LeBron James and Anthony Davis. James’ 71 regular season games played and Davis’ 76 were the most either has played since joining the Lakers. However, injuries to other players limited their depth, resulting in inconsistent lineup pairings and holes in the defense. Jarred Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent missed a combined 121 games to injury or illness with Christian Wood, Cam Reddish, and Jalen Hood-Schifino each missing 25+ games of their own.

The team opted to overhaul their medical staff for the second time in three years and third in the past five seasons, replacing Roger Sancho with Dr. Vanessa Brooks. Dr. Leroy Sims was named Director of Player Performance and Health after spending time with the league front office as their Senior Vice President and Head of Medical Operations.

The new medical unit will need to replicate the previous group’s success with the health of James and Davis while keeping the other Lakers players active and available. The latter issue is already proving to be a challenging task with Wood and Vanderbilt still recovering from offseason procedures.