7-footer Christian Koloko is finalizing a return to the NBA | Lakers are the frontrunners to sign him

[YogurtProducer]

Really? I remember arguing about the potential of the Raptors youth and some people fed me stats where koloko has the most defensive impact in the entire roster, with off the chart great defensive metric.

Let's revisit the Koloko timeline here...

We made a bad trade - giving up a 1st round pick to SA for an old guy who wasn't even playing for them. But Masai is excused: we just moved down 13 rungs in the draft ladder and we would've selected Koloko at #20 anyway, you guys are too negative.

Then he didn't play that well and excuses were: but he was only a #33 second round pick and besides, Masai was right, he's young with oodles of potential on defense... anyway you guys are too negative.

Then the blood clot issue and justification was Masai was absolutely right to cut him and besides he'll be loyal and great fit for us and he'll choose us anyway because we drafted him and he's practicing with us... you guys are too negative.

Then Koloko signs with LA... but Masai is still right and it's the system's fault, the system should've allowed us to keep his rights and besides he wasn't any good anyway, Masai was right to cut him, in Masai we trust!

Possible next excuse on the excuse train: but #20 / #33 picks don't pan out anyway so no big loss, Thad was great, look how many players he mentored!

Raptors still have an open roster spot and could have signed him if they wanted to. They didn’t want to give him a guaranteed deal.

He is signing a 2-way with LA. No way he turned down a guaranteed deal for a 2-way.

I dont think we have a roster spot? We have 15, and that does not even count Bruno Fernando which would be 16. We got to cut a guy for Bruno, so if we wanted Bruno + Koloko it meant cutting 2.

Boucher + Temple both are easy cuts IMO, unless they really really value Temples leadership. Chomche is fun as a late pick, but he pretty much is a UDFA, so if they really liked Koloko I feel like they could have cut him as well.

[canada_dry]

I dont think its the right career move for him btw. It can turn ugly quickly.

Sent from my SM-G960W using RealGM mobile app

[Raptorfan2012]

Let's revisit the Koloko timeline here...

We made a bad trade - giving up a 1st round pick to SA for an old guy who wasn't even playing for them. But Masai is excused: we just moved down 13 rungs in the draft ladder and we would've selected Koloko at #20 anyway, you guys are too negative.

Then he didn't play that well and excuses were: but he was only a #33 second round pick and besides, Masai was right, he's young with oodles of potential on defense... anyway you guys are too negative.

Then the blood clot issue and justification was Masai was absolutely right to cut him and besides he'll be loyal and great fit for us and he'll choose us anyway because we drafted him and he's practicing with us... you guys are too negative.

Then Koloko signs with LA... but Masai is still right and it's the system's fault, the system should've allowed us to keep his rights and besides he wasn't any good anyway, Masai was right to cut him, in Masai we trust!

Possible next excuse on the excuse train: but #20 / #33 picks don't pan out anyway so no big loss, Thad was great, look how many players he mentored!

Raptors still have an open roster spot and could have signed him if they wanted to. They didn’t want to give him a guaranteed deal.

He is signing a 2-way with LA. No way he turned down a guaranteed deal for a 2-way.

I dont think we have a roster spot? We have 15, and that does not even count Bruno Fernando which would be 16. We got to cut a guy for Bruno, so if we wanted Bruno + Koloko it meant cutting 2.

Boucher + Temple both are easy cuts IMO, unless they really really value Temples leadership. Chomche is fun as a late pick, but he pretty much is a UDFA, so if they really liked Koloko I feel like they could have cut him as well.

Pretty sure we have one open spot that is most likely going to Bruno (he signed a non-guaranteed apparently).

[youngRAPZ]

How do you know he’s signing a two way? Shams never stated what the deal was

The Lakers' deal with Koloko must be reviewed by the league before he's cleared, sources told Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times. He's expected to sign a two-way contract, Woike reports.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-free-agency-lakers-agree-to-deal-with-7-footer-christian-koloko-per-reports-add-frontcourt-depth/amp/

Only a two-way? Little disappointed we did not pick him up on that. He has already shown he can be an NBA player, something none of our two-ways have.

I wanted loko back too but soon as we signed Bruno the writing was on the wall. Loko on a two way wouldn’t make sense here seeing as we already have 2 C prospects on 2way contracts. And I don’t think raptors would give him a guaranteed deal without him facing Bruno in camp and earning it.

[Johnny Bball]

How do you know he’s signing a two way? Shams never stated what the deal was

The Lakers' deal with Koloko must be reviewed by the league before he's cleared, sources told Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times. He's expected to sign a two-way contract, Woike reports.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-free-agency-lakers-agree-to-deal-with-7-footer-christian-koloko-per-reports-add-frontcourt-depth/amp/

Only a two-way? Little disappointed we did not pick him up on that. He has already shown he can be an NBA player, something none of our two-ways have.

He's still not cleared to play. And there's no guarantee he gets cleared, or for how long. LAL signed him to a two way with the hopes that the NBA does, and that he can make the team. Lakers have few picks and a dearth of youth, and can take shots here.

I can't see the raptors waiving someone to jump the gun here to sign him to a guaranteed deal.

It sucks, but I don't know how they waive someone, sign him to a guaranteed deal with the possibility that he doesn't get cleared or it doesn't last long? How does that look? Probably worse.

[SpiderMunn]

Loco for Koloko

: (

[Jerry Lucas]

Let's revisit the Koloko timeline here...

We made a bad trade - giving up a 1st round pick to SA for an old guy who wasn't even playing for them. But Masai is excused: we just moved down 13 rungs in the draft ladder and we would've selected Koloko at #20 anyway, you guys are too negative.

Then he didn't play that well and excuses were: but he was only a #33 second round pick and besides, Masai was right, he's young with oodles of potential on defense... anyway you guys are too negative.

Then the blood clot issue and justification was Masai was absolutely right to cut him and besides he'll be loyal and great fit for us and he'll choose us anyway because we drafted him and he's practicing with us... you guys are too negative.

Then Koloko signs with LA... but Masai is still right and it's the system's fault, the system should've allowed us to keep his rights and besides he wasn't any good anyway, Masai was right to cut him, in Masai we trust!

Possible next excuse on the excuse train: but #20 / #33 picks don't pan out anyway so no big loss, Thad was great, look how many players he mentored!

Raptors still have an open roster spot and could have signed him if they wanted to. They didn’t want to give him a guaranteed deal.

He is signing a 2-way with LA. No way he turned down a guaranteed deal for a 2-way.

I dont think we have a roster spot? We have 15, and that does not even count Bruno Fernando which would be 16. We got to cut a guy for Bruno, so if we wanted Bruno + Koloko it meant cutting 2.

Boucher + Temple both are easy cuts IMO, unless they really really value Temples leadership. Chomche is fun as a late pick, but he pretty much is a UDFA, so if they really liked Koloko I feel like they could have cut him as well.

We have 15 NBA contracts on the roster including Fernando not excluding him, but at the same time Bruno has $0 guaranteed before opening night so that could have still been considered a 15th open spot depending on what one thought of Koloko vs Fernando.

There also might be a 21st training camp spot still open, as there's the 3 two-way guys and only 2 confirmed Exhibit 10s (Quincy Guerrier is still unconfirmed outside of Michael Scotto's initial reporting).

[Spida888]

The Lakers' deal with Koloko must be reviewed by the league before he's cleared, sources told Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times. He's expected to sign a two-way contract, Woike reports.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-free-agency-lakers-agree-to-deal-with-7-footer-christian-koloko-per-reports-add-frontcourt-depth/amp/

Only a two-way? Little disappointed we did not pick him up on that. He has already shown he can be an NBA player, something none of our two-ways have.

He's still not cleared to play. And there's no guarantee he gets cleared, or for how long. LAL signed him to a two way with the hopes that the NBA does, and that he can make the team. Lakers have few picks and a dearth of youth, and can take shots here.

I can't see the raptors waiving someone to jump the gun here to sign him to a guaranteed deal.

It sucks, but I don't know how they waive someone, sign him to a guaranteed deal with the possibility that he doesn't get cleared or it doesn't last long? How does that look? Probably worse.

The 15th spot is open for the Raps unless you meant a two way spot. Personally, I'm not high on DJ Carton, and would be fine if we replaced him with Koloko. Maybe they already explored that avenue with Koloko and he would have still preferred the LA two way spot.

If the Raps did offer the regular 15th spot, it likely would have been a done deal.

[Chandan]

Wish him the best.

To be honest, I'm kind of glad he's moved on. I don't know what most of you see in him.

No slight, just the numbers don't justify the attachment to him.

Really? I remember arguing about the potential of the Raptors youth and some people fed me stats where koloko has the most defensive impact in the entire roster, with off the chart great defensive metric.

Let's revisit the Koloko timeline here...

We made a bad trade - giving up a 1st round pick to SA for an old guy who wasn't even playing for them. But Masai is excused: we just moved down 13 rungs in the draft ladder and we would've selected Koloko at #20 anyway, you guys are too negative.

Then he didn't play that well and excuses were: but he was only a #33 second round pick and besides, Masai was right, he's young with oodles of potential on defense... anyway you guys are too negative.

Then the blood clot issue and justification was Masai was absolutely right to cut him and besides he'll be loyal and great fit for us and he'll choose us anyway because we drafted him and he's practicing with us... you guys are too negative.

Then Koloko signs with LA... but Masai is still right and it's the system's fault, the system should've allowed us to keep his rights and besides he wasn't any good anyway, Masai was right to cut him, in Masai we trust!

Possible next excuse on the excuse train: but #20 / #33 picks don't pan out anyway so no big loss, Thad was great, look how many players he mentored!

Masai could have signed him to a guarantee deal but didn't. This just shows that the FO never really wanted him. In masai we trust.

[bballsparkin]

I dont think its the right career move for him btw. It can turn ugly quickly.

It seems like a good opportunity if he plays well. A healthy Koloko with AD and LeBron is enticing. The opportunity here is not as enticing after this off-season's moves.

[Johnny Bball]

Only a two-way? Little disappointed we did not pick him up on that. He has already shown he can be an NBA player, something none of our two-ways have.

He's still not cleared to play. And there's no guarantee he gets cleared, or for how long. LAL signed him to a two way with the hopes that the NBA does, and that he can make the team. Lakers have few picks and a dearth of youth, and can take shots here.

I can't see the raptors waiving someone to jump the gun here to sign him to a guaranteed deal.

It sucks, but I don't know how they waive someone, sign him to a guaranteed deal with the possibility that he doesn't get cleared or it doesn't last long? How does that look? Probably worse.

The 15th spot is open for the Raps unless you meant a two way spot. Personally, I'm not high on DJ Carton, and would be fine if we replaced him with Koloko. Maybe they already explored that avenue with Koloko and he would have still preferred the LA two way spot.

If the Raps did offer the regular 15th spot, it likely would have been a done deal.

I mean Klutch probably asked the Raptors for a guaranteed spot before settling on a non-guaranteed deal with LAL and not sure the Raptors even got that same chance to come back with a deal once he is cleared.. That seems the standard way teams get played by Klutch before they just serve the Lakers.

If you are Koloko and you know you're going to be cleared to play, do you sign now and sign a non-guaranteed deal? Or do you wait and then see what you can get out of all 30 teams once you are cleared? That's the part that is sticking out to me here.

[aminiaturebuddha]

100%. Should be similar to Roko Ukic where we get his rights

It's especially annoying because the main issue was that the league wouldn't medically clear him to play. The Raptors waited for three quarters of the season for the league to clear him and they never did, so they felt they had no choice but to waive him.

Now the league is about to clear him and he's free to sign with anyone whereas the Raps paid for a year of service that they didn't get because the league wouldn't let him play.

But them's the breaks I guess. I still like him as a player and his defensive potential, but I don't think he's a major difference maker that would significantly change the Raptors fortunes. But I wish him all the best. Hopefully he has a long career ahead of him.

None of this is true, even a little. Dude was medically unfit to play basketball, the league didn't tell us to waive him. We chose to do that, we weren't "waiting on the league to clear him". That was after he was waived starting late this summer.

We needed a roster spot to facilitate the Siakam trade, so he was waived, that's it.

Yes, it absolutely is. Raptors management was quoted as saying that they had exhausted all their options to try to get him medically cleared. It was definitely the league's Fitness-to-Play Panel that would not clear him to play. Not sure why this is something that you're choosing to argue about.

Now, the Raptors then did decide to waive him. That much is true. But that only happened after they had tried to get him medically cleared several times and it didn't happen.

You can argue about whether or not the Raptors should have hung onto an asset that they were unsure would ever be able to play again. I actually would have liked to see them hang onto him until the end of the year and see what happened in the off-season, but to say that it's "not even a little true" that the league wouldn't clear him is just wrong.

[Tom_Foolery]

Could you image choosing to be lower on the totem pole than Bronny James?

[basketballto]

Wish him the best.

To be honest, I'm kind of glad he's moved on. I don't know what most of you see in him.

No slight, just the numbers don't justify the attachment to him.

Really? I remember arguing about the potential of the Raptors youth and some people fed me stats where koloko has the most defensive impact in the entire roster, with off the chart great defensive metric.

Let's revisit the Koloko timeline here...

We made a bad trade - giving up a 1st round pick to SA for an old guy who wasn't even playing for them. But Masai is excused: we just moved down 13 rungs in the draft ladder and we would've selected Koloko at #20 anyway, you guys are too negative.

Then he didn't play that well and excuses were: but he was only a #33 second round pick and besides, Masai was right, he's young with oodles of potential on defense... anyway you guys are too negative.

Then the blood clot issue and justification was Masai was absolutely right to cut him and besides he'll be loyal and great fit for us and he'll choose us anyway because we drafted him and he's practicing with us... you guys are too negative.

Then Koloko signs with LA... but Masai is still right and it's the system's fault, the system should've allowed us to keep his rights and besides he wasn't any good anyway, Masai was right to cut him, in Masai we trust!

Possible next excuse on the excuse train: but #20 / #33 picks don't pan out anyway so no big loss, Thad was great, look how many players he mentored!

Why would the Thad trade matter? Raptors were picking him at 19 anyways.

[S.W.A.N]

Wish him the best.

To be honest, I'm kind of glad he's moved on. I don't know what most of you see in him.

No slight, just the numbers don't justify the attachment to him.

Really? I remember arguing about the potential of the Raptors youth and some people fed me stats where koloko has the most defensive impact in the entire roster, with off the chart great defensive metric.

Let's revisit the Koloko timeline here...

We made a bad trade - giving up a 1st round pick to SA for an old guy who wasn't even playing for them. But Masai is excused: we just moved down 13 rungs in the draft ladder and we would've selected Koloko at #20 anyway, you guys are too negative.

Then he didn't play that well and excuses were: but he was only a #33 second round pick and besides, Masai was right, he's young with oodles of potential on defense... anyway you guys are too negative.

Then the blood clot issue and justification was Masai was absolutely right to cut him and besides he'll be loyal and great fit for us and he'll choose us anyway because we drafted him and he's practicing with us... you guys are too negative.

Then Koloko signs with LA... but Masai is still right and it's the system's fault, the system should've allowed us to keep his rights and besides he wasn't any good anyway, Masai was right to cut him, in Masai we trust!

Possible next excuse on the excuse train: but #20 / #33 picks don't pan out anyway so no big loss, Thad was great, look how many players he mentored!

You and Tom Foolery are redonkulous right now.

Koloko did have excellent defensive metrics, and had the potential to be a massive part of our future before the blood clots.

Masai did what every single GM in the NBA would've done. The chances of coming back from blood clots is very low and had no real timetable.

When Koloko had the surgery that 'fixed' his problem (to be determined) we kept in contact with his agent, and made sure we had a roster spot. (There a good reason Bruno contract was done the way it was)

Then Koloko has good news, and it looks like he'll be back in the league. Awesome, but business is business and the opportunity in LA is far greater than the one in Toronto and he signed with them.

Why there has to be an 'excuse train' is beyond me. We had bad luck with him getting a blood clot. Period, end of story. Everything else was done fine.

If you really want to bitch about trading 20th pick to get a player and move back in the draft I suppose you could. But I think that is just a lazy way to look at things.

[OAKLEY_2]

lol Masai keeps showing us how great of a GM he really is

How is this possibly on Masai?

= Raptor's fanbase self abuse.

[Scase]

It's especially annoying because the main issue was that the league wouldn't medically clear him to play. The Raptors waited for three quarters of the season for the league to clear him and they never did, so they felt they had no choice but to waive him.

Now the league is about to clear him and he's free to sign with anyone whereas the Raps paid for a year of service that they didn't get because the league wouldn't let him play.

But them's the breaks I guess. I still like him as a player and his defensive potential, but I don't think he's a major difference maker that would significantly change the Raptors fortunes. But I wish him all the best. Hopefully he has a long career ahead of him.

None of this is true, even a little. Dude was medically unfit to play basketball, the league didn't tell us to waive him. We chose to do that, we weren't "waiting on the league to clear him". That was after he was waived starting late this summer.

We needed a roster spot to facilitate the Siakam trade, so he was waived, that's it.

Yes, it absolutely is. Raptors management was quoted as saying that they had exhausted all their options to try to get him medically cleared. It was definitely the league's Fitness-to-Play Panel that would not clear him to play. Not sure why this is something that you're choosing to argue about.

Now, the Raptors then did decide to waive him. That much is true. But that only happened after they had tried to get him medically cleared several times and it didn't happen.

You can argue about whether or not the Raptors should have hung onto an asset that they were unsure would ever be able to play again. I actually would have liked to see them hang onto him until the end of the year and see what happened in the off-season, but to say that it's "not even a little true" that the league wouldn't clear him is just wrong.

Gonna need to see the source on this claim.

Really? I remember arguing about the potential of the Raptors youth and some people fed me stats where koloko has the most defensive impact in the entire roster, with off the chart great defensive metric.

Let's revisit the Koloko timeline here...

We made a bad trade - giving up a 1st round pick to SA for an old guy who wasn't even playing for them. But Masai is excused: we just moved down 13 rungs in the draft ladder and we would've selected Koloko at #20 anyway, you guys are too negative.

Then he didn't play that well and excuses were: but he was only a #33 second round pick and besides, Masai was right, he's young with oodles of potential on defense... anyway you guys are too negative.

Then the blood clot issue and justification was Masai was absolutely right to cut him and besides he'll be loyal and great fit for us and he'll choose us anyway because we drafted him and he's practicing with us... you guys are too negative.

Then Koloko signs with LA... but Masai is still right and it's the system's fault, the system should've allowed us to keep his rights and besides he wasn't any good anyway, Masai was right to cut him, in Masai we trust!

Possible next excuse on the excuse train: but #20 / #33 picks don't pan out anyway so no big loss, Thad was great, look how many players he mentored!

Raptors still have an open roster spot and could have signed him if they wanted to. They didn’t want to give him a guaranteed deal.

He is signing a 2-way with LA. No way he turned down a guaranteed deal for a 2-way.

Thanks for proactively giving him the next goalpost move

[OAKLEY_2]

Coming from the guy who loses his mind over everything.

Something something accusations something something confession.

Having Koloko back would be nice.

He isn't the difference between us winning 35 games and 45 games, but he does add depth at our weakest position and a solid defensive presence in the paint (in theory, we'd need to see how he looks returning to form).

I don't fault the F.O. for waiving him since it did genuinely seem like his career was dead (even if I personally would have waived Nwora) but I digress.

Masai more interested in massively overpaying old washed up Canadian scrubs like Olynyk instead of building a base of young talent....

Well we need some vets... and you could remove the word massively and still make your point.

[Duffman100]

Really? I remember arguing about the potential of the Raptors youth and some people fed me stats where koloko has the most defensive impact in the entire roster, with off the chart great defensive metric.

Let's revisit the Koloko timeline here...

We made a bad trade - giving up a 1st round pick to SA for an old guy who wasn't even playing for them. But Masai is excused: we just moved down 13 rungs in the draft ladder and we would've selected Koloko at #20 anyway, you guys are too negative.

Then he didn't play that well and excuses were: but he was only a #33 second round pick and besides, Masai was right, he's young with oodles of potential on defense... anyway you guys are too negative.

Then the blood clot issue and justification was Masai was absolutely right to cut him and besides he'll be loyal and great fit for us and he'll choose us anyway because we drafted him and he's practicing with us... you guys are too negative.

Then Koloko signs with LA... but Masai is still right and it's the system's fault, the system should've allowed us to keep his rights and besides he wasn't any good anyway, Masai was right to cut him, in Masai we trust!

Possible next excuse on the excuse train: but #20 / #33 picks don't pan out anyway so no big loss, Thad was great, look how many players he mentored!

Masai could have signed him to a guarantee deal but didn't. This just shows that the FO never really wanted him. In masai we trust.

Right and I'm sure signing a dude who hasn't medically cleared to play ball to a guaranteed deal would have been free and clear of criticism from you.

You guys can't argue anything genuinely. It's embarrassing.

[WuTang_CMB]

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He taking a 2 way