A few years ago, Jarred Vanderbilt was one of the most entertaining players in the league to watch. His energy hunting rebounds and loose balls was infectious, and his versatility on defense was quite tantalizing. Vanderbilt helped play a key role in turning the Minnesota Timberwolves into a formidable defense in 2021-22 (13th in defensive rating) after they were a bottom-three unit the year before.
Since then, injuries have plagued one of the NBA’s foremost jitterbugs. Vanderbilt was limited to 36 games last year and 29 games the year before. However, this year, he has stayed relatively healthy, which is why I was surprised to see him log back-to-back DNP-CDs (Did Not Play – Coach’s Decision) in the Los Angeles Lakers’ victories over the Utah Jazz.
This got me thinking: why is Vanderbilt – a healthy, athletic forward in the prime of his career (he’s 26) – not getting any playing time?
The Game Has Changed
One of the biggest storylines of the 2025-26 season is the increase in how much teams are driving the basketball. Heck, the Miami Heat have basically scrapped the idea of using the pick-and-roll and created an offense centered around spacing the floor and dismantling teams with drives to the rim (one Jaime Jaquez Jr. is thriving in, by the way).
There lies Vanderbilt’s issue: he doesn’t really drive. On the season, Vanderbilt is averaging just 1.4 drives per game (per NBA.com); and, for his career, he’s actually never had more than 1.5 drives per game.
This season, 62 players are averaging less than two drives per game and playing more than 15 minutes per game (minimum 10 games played). 53 of those 62 players (85.5%) were either centers (these players don’t usually drive a lot anyway) or proven spacers (players with a multi-season sample size of solid or better shooting on reasonable volume). When you’re a giant roll threat who can catch lobs or a marksmen who can complete plays from behind the 3-point line, it isn’t as important that you can put the ball on the floor and attack.
For those wondering, here are the nine guys who don’t fall under one of those two buckets.
All of these guys are similar to Vanderbilt in that they are defense-first, non-centers who can’t really space the floor. But unlike Vanderbilt, all of these guys continue to be in their team’s nightly rotation. Why is that?
While they don’t drive very much, Peyton Watson, Derrick Jones Jr., Jeremy Sochan, and Nae’Qwan Tomlin all get to the rim a great deal (via cuts and putbacks), and they are all more accurate from that range.
The same can’t be said for Jordan Walsh, Jaylen Clark, and Javonte Smith, but all of them are offering elite wing/guard defense. The three of them are all in the 86th percentile or higher in Defensive Estimate Plus-Minus (per Dunks & Threes). Meanwhile, Vanderbilt is only slightly above average (62nd percentile). So, while they kill their teams on offense, the three of them bring more value back to the table with their defense.
As for Ziaire Williams, he plays for the 3-14 Brooklyn Nets. As the 29th-ranked defense in the NBA, they are desperately trying to field competent NBA players. That is hardly the same goal that the Luka Doncic/LeBron James/Austin Reaves-led Lakers have.
Archetypes go extinct in the NBA all the time. Once upon a time, every NBA team had a point guard whose sole purpose was to get an offense into their set play or a power forward who operated exclusively out of the low block. Nowadays, you’d be hard-pressed to find a single player who fits either of these descriptions.
That seems to be what’s happening to non-elite defense-first wings/forwards who can’t drive, space the floor, or acquire a high volume of assisted shots at the rim. It wasn’t too long ago that these bundles of energy made for great regular season players who would eventually be schemed out of highly competitive postseason series (see Vanderbilt during the 2023 Playoffs). But now, it seems like there isn’t even a place for these guys on healthy teams that are trying to compete on a game-to-game basis. Soon, even the bottom-feeders will stop targeting these players. And eventually, it seems like they will be gone altogether.