The Lakers will be adding a promising young player to their center rotation soon. Christian Koloko, whom the Lakers signed to a two-way contract this past summer, has been cleared to participate in basketball activities by the NBA’s fitness-to-play panel, per ESPN. Koloko is expected to participate in practice as he ramps up to play in the NBA for the first time since April 2023.
Koloko, who was a second-round draft pick in the 2022 NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors, had been under a medical advisement to not play due to blood clots that could’ve threatened his ability to still play in the NBA. Koloko was forced to sit out all of last season due to the blood clots, and was then waived by the Raptors and was referred to the league’s fitness-to-play panel. Toronto waived Koloko so the team could make room to facilitate the Pascal Siakam trade with the Pacers, and while teams were interested in picking him up at the time, the league informed the other 29 teams he first has to be medically cleared before playing again.
Koloko remained unsigned during the 2023-24 season, but agreed to a two-way deal with the Lakers this offseason. Prior to the start of the season, Lakers president Rob Pelinka expressed optimisim that Koloko would be cleared to play sooner rather than later.
“We did a deep dive with our medical staff…and have a lot of optimism and hope he’s still with the panel,” Pelinka said. “And part of that is just logistics that have to happen, but we think that’ll happen sooner than later and whatever the decision of the league is, we’ll respect. But again, we have a lot of optimism and if he’s cleared, 7-foot-5 wingspan, 7-foot-1 [height], I think we saw a lot of promise in him when we scouted him when he was at Arizona, was almost a first-round pick. So, to get a player like that that we can bring along and develop and may even impact games this year when he gets cleared is something we’re really excited about.”
Koloko earned Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year in college while at Arizona, as well as All-Defense honors in the conference. He ranked sixth in the country in total blocks during the 2021-22 season, and has great size and length that is obviously appealing to a team like the Lakers that is lacking size up front behind Anthony Davis.
The Lakers have been rumored for several weeks to be interested in trading for a center, and have been linked to Jazz center Walker Kessler. But perhaps the addition of Koloko to the rotation means they’ll change their approach. That will obviously depend on how much of an impact Koloko makes, and on a two-way contract he’ll be splitting time between the Lakers and the G League affiliate, but if he’s able to put his fingerprints on the game, he could be a valuable piece off the bench for L.A.
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