The early resurgence of Gabe Vincent

Let’s take a closer look at Gabe Vincent’s return to form and how he’s impacting the Lakers.

Los Angeles Lakers guard Gabe Vincent was signed from the Miami Heat last season after coming off an excellent playoff run where he impacted the game in multiple ways against the best of competition.

However, Vincent picked up a knee injury in preseason last year that, at first, was treated conservatively before he underwent surgery after that failed. With the surgery and subsequent extended rehab process, he missed essentially the entire regular season.

His impact in the playoffs was, as expected, marginal. However, it was still an important jumping-off point for him as it gave him minutes to acclimate to the physical and mental demands of NBA basketball, something you cannot replicate on the practice court.

Those minutes were a springboard into the offseason for Gabe, who was now finally out of his rehab phases and could have a normal summer of building up his physical foundations rather than simply trying to regain what he had lost. Further, there’s a confidence that comes from being able to play in games, particularly after an extended rehab process.

All those factors are now paying off as he’s had a very positive start to the season. I explained more in the following video.

Of course, the season is still young and the sample size is small. But multiple indicators are there that we are now finally seeing the Vincent that the team highly coveted during the free agency period.

Considering he and the team are still very early in the process of finding individual and team rhythm and cohesion with a coaching staff, all signs point towards an ongoing improvement as the season rolls along.

Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, is a youth basketball coach at the U12 level and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA in which he further combines his movement expertise and fitness training.

Combining his background in biomechanics, movement science, and learning science - he consults in a variety of sports including basketball on movement mechanics and skill acquisition. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC and analyzes the Lakers from a skills & medical perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance.