{"id":95690,"date":"2024-09-13T23:19:08","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T03:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=95690"},"modified":"2024-09-13T23:19:08","modified_gmt":"2024-09-14T03:19:08","slug":"lakers-frontrunners-sign-christian-koloko-late-offseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/09\/13\/lakers-frontrunners-sign-christian-koloko-late-offseason\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Frontrunners To Sign Surprise Player Late In Offseason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Lakers are the \u201cleaders to sign\u201d 22-year-old center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kolokch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Christian Koloko<\/a>, per The Athletic\u2019s Shams Charania.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Sources said the Lakers \u2013 in need for frontcourt help \u2013 are leaders to sign Koloko, the 22-year-old former Raptors second-round pick. He has been deciding among multiple teams and is now finalizing a commitment on a deal to make his NBA return. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QEYw7Oqwvj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/QEYw7Oqwvj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1834786391676375050?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 14, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Koloko is reportedly \u201cdeciding among multiple teams and is now finalizing on a deal to make his NBA return.\u201d Drafted by the Toronto Raptors with 33rd overall pick in 2022, the Cameroon native was forced to sit out the 2023-24 season due to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/18\/raptors-draft-pick-cleared-by-doctors-after-blood-clot-issue-christian-koloko\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a blood clotting condition<\/a>. In 2022-23, the then rookie averaged 3.1 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.0 block in 13.8 minutes per game.<\/p>\n<h2>Lakers Frontrunners To Sign Christian Koloko Late In Offseason<\/h2>\n<p>If signed by the Lakers, Koloko will help shore up an injury-ravaged position group. This week, Los Angeles announced that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/woodch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Christian Wood<\/a> had undergone arthroscopic knee surgery. He\u2019s now expected to miss all of training camp and the preseason. In addition, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/v\/vandeja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jarred Vanderbilt<\/a> has yet to recover from a foot injury that kept him out of the 2024 NBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>At 7-foot-1 and 230 pounds, Koloko may also be a version of the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/15\/lakers-head-coach-reveals-ideal-addition-to-roster-anthony-davis-wendell-carter-jr\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">big, bruising five<\/a>\u201d that Lakers head coach JJ Redick has been looking for.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Christian Koloko Highlight Mix! (Vol. 1 \u2022 2022-23 Season)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VnFW63QJIzE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s not the type of pivot that\u2019s expected to play through the low post. However, he\u2019s strong and aggressive in the paint. At the defensive end, he plays with that same force, while also displaying terrific shot-blocking instincts.<\/p>\n<p>Due to his inexperience and the fact that he didn\u2019t play last season, expectations should be tempered. Nonetheless, in what\u2019s been a disappointing offseason for the Lakers, they may have found a diamond in the rough. That is, if they manage to keep him out of an opponent\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Lakers are the \u201cleaders to sign\u201d 22-year-old center Christian Koloko, per The Athletic\u2019s Shams Charania. Sources said the Lakers \u2013 in need for frontcourt help \u2013 are leaders to sign Koloko, the 22-year-old former Raptors second-round pick. He has been deciding among multiple teams and is now finalizing a commitment on a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":95697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1608,62,3],"tags":[4544,297],"class_list":["post-95690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-christian-koloko","tag-nba-free-agency"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}