SAN FRANCISCO — It only took a few games for it to be clear what area of weaknesses would likely be present for the Lakers in 2026-27.

Luckily for them, Jarred Vanderbilt can help the team in at least a couple of areas.

The question that remains is how often he’ll be on the court to contribute.

After sitting out the first four regular-season games, Vanderbilt made his season debut in Wednesday’s win over the Clippers and immediately made an impact. 

The veteran forward recorded seven rebounds, two assists and being a plus-22 in individual plus/minus in 21 minutes. 

The work on the boards was an area the Lakers struggled with before Vanderbilt made his debut, ranking last in offensive rebounding percentage, and second-to-last in overall rebounding percentage and defensive rebounding percentage.

“Just the rebounding aspect, the physicality aspect,” Vanderbilt responded of the areas he can help the Lakers after Friday’s shootaround ahead of the Lakers’ road game against the Warriors. “Whether that’s boxing out, securing rebounds, finishing possessions. Obviously on the offensive glass, too. Just putting pressure on the rim and offensive glass, two areas I feel like I could contribute to.”

And Vanderbilt provided that in abundance, especially on the offensive glass.

The Lakers grabbed 37.5% of their offensive rebounding opportunities against the Clippers when Vanderbilt was on the court compared with the 25.4% offensive rebounding rate they have without him playing. 

“When the opportunity comes, it calls, just be an impact guy,” he said.

Vanderbilt’s debut came after not only receiving DNP-CDs (did not play — coach’s decision) in the first four games but also having limited playing time during preseason.

He played a combined 12 minutes in the Lakers’ preseason games against the Kings on Oct. 8 and the Warriors on Oct. 13 before not seeing the court in the preseason finale against the Nuggets on Oct. 16.

“Just preparing myself, doing my part,” Vanderbilt said of how he stayed ready. “Being a professional, going in every day putting in the work. It’s a long season. As you see, not even our team, but across the league, a lot of guys are suffering injuries, getting hurt. That’s the good part about having depth.”

But Vanderbilt was still ready to help on the glass and apply defensive perimeter pressure when he could.

“Even when I get out there, obviously just flying around and causing chaos, crashing the boards and kind of propelled [Quentin Grimes] and Collin [Sexton to] start picking up full court,” Vanderbilt said. “Jake [LaRavia] started crashing. It’s contagious when everybody’s boxing out. You don’t want to be the one guy that’s not boxing out and your man gets the rebound. So it kind of puts that pressure on everybody to just lock in, box out and do all the dirty work that’s required.”

With it appearing that Kevon Looney’s spot in the rotation is diminishing, the 6-foot-8 Vanderbilt could get more playing time as a small-ball center like he did against the Clippers — a role that has advantages and disadvantages.

“Size, I think, that would probably be a disadvantage,” Vanderbilt said. “But also on the other hand,  just me being able to have quicker feet than these guys on both ends. Whether that’s getting in and out of screens, running the floor on offense or being able to switch out on defense. So it has its pros and cons.”