With Jaxson Hayes suffering a sprained ankle and Christian Wood still recovering from offseason knee surgery, the only big man offering depth behind Anthony Davis for the Los Angeles Lakers is two-way center Christian Koloko.
The Lakers turned to Koloko in their recent victory over the Memphis Grizzlies and he was solid in 13 minutes, contributing four points, one rebound and one steal. Of course Koloko is a long-term project, especially after having to sit out more than a year due to health issues, but he has one of the best players to learn from in Davis.
And the Lakers superstar is embracing that role, praising Koloko’s ability while noting that he just wants to be someone the young center can lean on as he develops.
“Obviously he’s long and his ability to catch a couple lobs like he did tonight,” Davis said after the Lakers win. “He can block some shots, got some rebounds, it’s huge. He’s not a guy who’s gonna go out of his role. He’s gonna do his job every night and play hard. Just trying to help him with that. He’s still young and he’s coming to me for advice and questions and stuff like that so just trying to be a guy that he can lean on to continue to get better in this league.”
The potential of Koloko is obvious as he is an active and athletic big who can finish at the basket and offers good rim protection. He was Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year in his final collegiate season at Arizona and, as Davis noted, he understands his role and plays towards his strengths.
The Lakers didn’t expect to have to rely on Koloko this early, but he has been solid in his minutes and should only get better as he gets more comfortable. Being able to learn from Davis will only help in his development and the Lakers superstar taking on that role shows the growth in his leadership as well.
Lakers’ Anthony Davis doesn’t like wearing goggles
Anthony Davis has also been dealing with some minor injury issues with the most recent being a bad poke to the eye, something that has happened to the Lakers big man multiple times over the past few seasons. This has led many to wonder why Davis doesn’t play with goggles and he was very straight forward with his answer.
“Because I don’t want to,” Davis said. “I wore goggles for three years when I was younger. Just don’t want to, to be honest. Obviously, the doctor said I don’t have to, but if it gets to a point where the doctor orders me to, (I will). I think Amar’e (Stoudemire) had to because of a risk of being blind if he gets hit in the eye or something like that, but that’s not the case for me. If it gets to that point where my eye doctor tells me that I need to wear them, then of course I will. But I’ve been cleared to go out and play without them.”
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