The Los Angeles Lakers announced that they signed Christian Koloko to a two-way contract and waived Blake Hinson in order to make room on the roster.
Koloko was originally drafted by the Toronto Raptors in the second round in 2022 out of Arizona. He attended Birmingham and Sierra Canyon after moving to the United States from Cameroon in 2017 so will be returning to the Southern California area.
In 58 career NBA games, Koloko has averaged 3.1 points and 2.9 rebounds in 13.8 minutes per game.
The 24-year-old was waived by the Raptors in Jan. 2024 and put into NBA’s Fitness-to-Play panel after discovering career-threatening blood clot issues. Teams weren’t able to sign him until he was medically cleared, which has now taken place.
Koloko has already taken to social media to express his excitement to be cleared to play basketball again and to be joining the Lakers:
God’s timing is always the best ?????? https://t.co/2j1fPl3vPl
— CjKoloko (@kolokojunior1) September 14, 2024
Given the injury to Christian Wood, the Lakers had a need for frontcourt depth and were able to land Koloko to help out there.
Unfortunately, Hinson did not make it to the season with the Lakers after signing a two-way contract as an undrafted free agent out of Pittsburgh.
Hinson averaged 18.5 points per game in 33 outings for the University of Pittsburgh last season, shooting an ACC-best 42.1% from 3-point range. He earned All-ACC First Team honors, ranking second in the conference in 3-point field goals made and third in points per game.
In eight Summer League games for the Lakers, Hinson averaged 10.9 points and 2.5 rebounds while shooting 32.8% from 3-point range on 8.0 attempts. While he can fill it up from deep, the defense will need to improve to be an NBA-caliber player.
With training camp just weeks away, it will be interesting to see if Hinson is able to catch on with another NBA team, perhaps on another two-way contract, or if he ultimately goes over to Europe for the 2024-25 season.
Lakers two-way players
With the Lakers signing Christian Koloko, he will go into the season as one of their three two-way players along with Colin Castleton and Armel Traore.
They will be eligible to be active in a maximum of 50 games with the Lakers this season, spending the rest of the time in the G League with the South Bay Lakers.
Both Castleton and Koloko could be in the mix for minutes right away as guys with professional experience, while Traore may need a year of development before being NBA-ready.
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