EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — D’Angelo Russell had been sent to the Brooklyn Nets. Jalen Hood-Schifino was off to the Utah Jazz. And Anthony Davis and Max Christie, out of nowhere, ended up headed to the Dallas Mavericks.
By last February, everything was on shaky ground in the Los Angeles Lakers’ locker room, no one safe from the news that their time might be next, that their days as a Laker were up.
Backup guard Gabe Vincent felt all those emotions, too. Those anxieties, the ones any reasonable person would feel, pumped through his body as much as they would anyone’s.
But the way Vincent reacted to the uncertainty speaks to why JJ Redick said last year that he wished he had a roster full of Gabe Vincents.
With certainty seemingly at an all-time low, Vincent looked at the situation in Los Angeles and wrote a massive check.
“I ended up buying a house here,” Vincent said Monday with a laugh.
Vincent, who had an excellent preseason, is expected to start in the Lakers season opener against the Warriors. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Vincent, who grew up in Stockton, Calif., was pragmatic about the decision. He’s a California guy, and Los Angeles in the summers is workable no matter where he’s playing basketball. He was also optimistic that things with the Lakers would still, somehow, work out.
On Tuesday, eight months after he bought the Los Angeles-area home, Vincent will likely hear his name called in the starting lineup for the Lakers, the team’s choice to slide into the void created by LeBron James’ sciatica injury. Vincent understands the role could be temporary. He knows matchups might dictate different lineup decisions.
But, for right now, he’s still buying.
“I’m all in on Laker basketball. I’m all in on this team,” Vincent told The Athletic on the eve of Tuesday’s season opener against the Golden State Warriors. “They’ll get everything I have to offer … I’ll be pouring everything into it because I’m trying to win.”
In his third season with the Lakers, Vincent is positioned to be the difference maker the Lakers hoped he would be in 2023 when they signed him in free agency.
Following the team’s final practice before opening the season, Redick joked that if he did, in fact, have a team full of Gabe Vincents, the Lakers would lose a lot of basketball games. Character, professionalism and skill only matter so much if everyone is 6 foot 2.
But Vincent has the qualities that Redick loves: energy, positivity, intelligence, a willingness to be coached, a willingness to sacrifice for teammates and a balance of seriousness and joy.
“I think everybody does possess those qualities; otherwise they wouldn’t be a Laker,” Redick said diplomatically. “The difference is he’s the most consistent in bringing those qualities every single time.”
Those characteristics haven’t wavered even during a tumultuous tenure with the franchise.
Vincent picked the Lakers after starting at point guard for the Miami Heat during their unlikely run to the NBA Finals. He did so with no expectations of starting or coming off the bench, instead joining the team with a wide-eyed understanding that he might not have the ball as much as he did in Miami, but that his presence on and off the floor could help the Lakers win.
Then, just four games into his first year with the team, swelling in his left knee sidelined Vincent. He returned 23 games later to play 14 minutes in a loss at Chicago. The team flew to Minnesota after the game, and by the time the Lakers’ plane landed, his knee had ballooned with swelling again.
He had surgery a week later.
Vincent played in five of the Lakers’ final six games. He had some success in their Play-In victory against the New Orleans Pelicans before looking out of rhythm in the team’s first-round loss to the Denver Nuggets.
And being off the court neutered his ability to provide leadership.
“I just think it’s hard to get through to people if you’re not … ’cause it was almost, my first year, it was almost as if I wasn’t on the team at all,” Vincent said. “There was a point where I wasn’t going to games. So for me to just show up and start just like chirping things, it’s like that could just, that could be off-putting and it doesn’t always seem genuine.”
After not feeling a part of the team in his first year in Los Angeles, he still wasn’t totally immersed before the 2024-25 season. A new coach in Redick, a new system to learn, and the lingering effects of his knee surgery helped contribute to an awful start. Through November, Vincent was shooting 20.9 percent from 3 and averaging 2.8 points per game.
But he stayed steady, drawing on the resilience and patience that helped push him from an undrafted rookie to a two-way player in Miami, to eventually becoming a starter on the Heat’s 2023 Eastern Conference championship team.
From Dec. 1 through the end of last season, he made 37.9 percent from 3 on five attempts per game while doing all the little things coaches love, both on the court and behind the scenes.
Still, Vincent was part of a group of veteran reserves who Redick kept on the bench during the second half of Game 4 in last season’s first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Although he was disappointed with the coach’s decision, Vincent turned his attention to trying to help from the bench instead of turning inward or pouting.
“That s— helps no one,” Vincent said.
On Monday, Redick said Vincent, Jaxson Hayes and Jarred Vanderbilt all accepted his decision to play the same lineup for the entire second half of that Game 4.
“They all understood,” Redick said. “Like to a man, they all said, ‘We understood what you’re doing. You’re trying to win a basketball game. It’s not personal.’ They were professional.”
Still, Vincent felt as settled as ever in his standing within the Lakers entering this season. While understanding that his expiring $11.5 million contract makes him an important part of most trade scenarios, he adapted to playing alongside Luka Dončić, locating the spots on the floor where Dončić can find him for prime catch-and-shoot opportunities.
He prepared to again sacrifice touches to Dončić, James and Austin Reaves, because that’s what the job would likely call for. But James’ injury, combined with Dončić’s preseason load-management plan, created plenty of on-ball work for Vincent.
Playing in a more prominent offensive role, he averaged 16.3 points over four preseason games while shooting 47.4 percent from the field and 55.6 percent from three. Playing without James, Reaves or Dončić against Dallas in Las Vegas, Vincent opened the game by hitting five straight 3s. He was fouled on his sixth attempt and made all three free throws to give him 18 points in less than five minutes. LeBron approved.
GV going crazy right now!!! Sheesh 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
— LeBron James (@KingJames) October 16, 2025
Playing with Dončić and Reaves in the starting lineup on Friday against the Sacramento Kings, Vincent scored 14 points and finished his 23 minutes with a plus-13. Teammates up and down the roster have noted that Vincent is one of the group’s most vocal leaders.
Despite being in the best basketball space he’s experienced since signing with the Lakers, Vincent knows it all could change with a call, especially as he enters the final year on his deal. But there’s no realtor on speed dial and no bag packed by the door.
He’s fully invested in being a Laker now, and hopefully, beyond.
Throughout his journey — from the make-good contract with the Heat to the NBA Finals to the games he was forced to watch from his couch and the ones he couldn’t impact from the bench — Vincent has tried to embrace each step without stressing over his future or ruminating too much on the past.
“I don’t think I had any expectations, which has been part of what’s made the ride so fun and enjoyable,” Vincent said. “But I’m super grateful for the positions I’m in. I’ve had my head down working for so long. It’s hard to look up sometimes.”
