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

[Tom_Foolery]

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.

Don't work yourself into a pretzel, please. It's not worth it.

If his "metrics" are so good, he wouldn't be on a 2-way contract.

[DelAbbot]

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!

Do you have Patreon? I would like to make a donation for this much needed therapy session

[YogurtProducer]

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.

IQ/Mitchell/Shead
Barrett/Walter/Temple
Brown/Dick/Ahgabji
Barnes/Mogbo/Boucher
Poeltl/Olynyk/Fernando

How is the 15th spot open?

[CazOnReal]

IQ/Mitchell/Shead
Barrett/Walter/Temple
Brown/Dick/Ahgabji
Barnes/Mogbo/Boucher
Poeltl/Olynyk/Fernando

How is the 15th spot open?

It's open in that Fernando's deal is not guaranteed and he could be waived with only, if I recall correctly, a $50K hit to the team's cap hit.

For the record, this would most likely only happen if someone seriously impressed at camp or a Bruce Brown/Boucher deal involved a 2:1 offer that requires a roster slot to be opened up. More likely than not, Bruno is taking the 15th slot.

[pingpongrac]

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.

Don't work yourself into a pretzel, please. It's not worth it.

If his "metrics" are so good, he wouldn't be on a 2-way contract.

Koloko's defensive metrics were good, but he's on a 2-way contract because he's a 24-year-old with less than 1000 NBA minutes that also happened to spend a year sidelined with a serious health issue. I think he could be an impactful player if his health is good, but very few teams would give up a roster spot for him because of the risk(s) he comes with.

The fact that people are trying to use Koloko signing with the Lakers as any kind of failure on the FO's part is laughable, especially considering the majority of those posters are ones that were calling Koloko trash in the other thread (or even in this one).

[WiggOuts]

bull. Another small market team losing out on players over stupid rules that don't protect them

Lakers now pick up a free big with potential that someone else invested time in developing. We didn't lose him because we didn't want him, we lost him due to circumstance.

Not a fan of teams that do stuff like this and some teams thrive on it, they don't do their own work, they just wait for opportunities to poach from others

Doesn’t seem like much bull honestly. He was waived. If you’re going to waive a player, but want him back when it suits you, where is the losing potential for them? It’s a classic wanting your cake and eating it too
This is probably the most fair thing for a player that can happen. Health issues, is waived, comes back and makes his own decision

What choice do they really have when the player wasnt medically cleared to play. No team in the league would keep a player for over a season if they knew he couldnt play. There was no end game in sight and roster spots are extremely valuable. They still kept him on the roster while it was in the early stages in spite of this.

Its not about wanting him back when it suits them, they drafted him. They should own his rights so when he does become medically cleared they THEN have the choice. If he wants to go somewhere else they can trade him, if they don't want him they can waive him at that point.

He was still on rookie scale, it would be fair to have an option for him not to take up a roster spot while trying to return. There was no guarantee he would ever play again

[C_Money]

We definitely did not have to waive him. Every fan and media person was surprised when it happened. I still don’t think losing him is that huge of a deal though.

[S.W.A.N]

We definitely did not have to waive him. Every fan and media person was surprised when it happened. I still don’t think losing him is that huge of a deal though.

Having Bruno and Chomche on the roster certainly reduces the sting.

As much as I was an advocate for bringing Koloko back, I have to admit I don't see him as a guy coach would love. He likes his bigs to be able to pass and Bruno definitely better on that end of things.

[ATLTimekeeper]

We definitely did not have to waive him. Every fan and media person was surprised when it happened. I still don’t think losing him is that huge of a deal though.

Having Bruno and Chomche on the roster certainly reduces the sting.

As much as I was an advocate for bringing Koloko back, I have to admit I don't see him as a guy coach would love. He likes his bigs to be able to pass and Bruno definitely better on that end of things.

I think Fernando is on a non-guaranteed deal. I actually don't think the Raptors had any interest in bringing back Koloko. We were tagged along with a number of teams, which is par for the course with Klutch. Koloko signed a two way with Klutch's home team, where he will be used as a throw-in in some mid-season trade to save the Lakers flailing season. He represents 'prospect' capitol for a team that is futures barren.

Anyway, this is great news for his career.

[God Squad]

MOTHER F*****


He's dead to me now.

[Blazing_royale]

Business is business. Now y'all know how DeMar feels I wish him the best. He doesn't owe us anything and we don't either, it's just business.

[TorontoBarneys]

Sorry but I find this entire saga quite amusing

[Jerry Lucas]

IQ/Mitchell/Shead
Barrett/Walter/Temple
Brown/Dick/Ahgabji
Barnes/Mogbo/Boucher
Poeltl/Olynyk/Fernando

How is the 15th spot open?

It's open in that Fernando's deal is not guaranteed and he could be waived with only, if I recall correctly, a $50K hit to the team's cap hit.

For the record, this would most likely only happen if someone seriously impressed at camp or a Bruce Brown/Boucher deal involved a 2:1 offer that requires a roster slot to be opened up. More likely than not, Bruno is taking the 15th slot.

$0 guaranteed before opening night, and fully guaranteed if he makes the team. Not sure where you saw 50k guaranteed.

[Godaddycurse]

We definitely did not have to waive him. Every fan and media person was surprised when it happened. I still don’t think losing him is that huge of a deal though.

Having Bruno and Chomche on the roster certainly reduces the sting.

As much as I was an advocate for bringing Koloko back, I have to admit I don't see him as a guy coach would love. He likes his bigs to be able to pass and Bruno definitely better on that end of things.

I think Fernando is on a non-guaranteed deal. I actually don't think the Raptors had any interest in bringing back Koloko. We were tagged along with a number of teams, which is par for the course with Klutch. Koloko signed a two way with Klutch's home team, where he will be used as a throw-in in some mid-season trade to save the Lakers flailing season. He represents 'prospect' capitol for a team that is futures barren.

Anyway, this is great news for his career.

you can't trade a 2 way player unless you convert to standard and lakers are full already

[Smalltown]

Good for him signing. Glad he's getting a chance to keep playing. But I don't think this moves the needle in either direction for the Raptors or the Lakers. The overreacting is just silly.

[NinjaBro]

Masai takes another L, godammit.

"We need to trade Siakam for AJ Griffin before it's too late!" - PhilBlackson

[Duffman100]

I'm pretty bullish on Koloko's ability, but acting as this is a massive failing by Masai is pretty ridiculous.

Still sad Koloko won't be here, thought he'd fit the current roster very well.

[Sandman88]

Cool. Hope Chomche crams it on his ass

[TheGeneral99]

Some posters on this board think that Masai should have predicted that Koloko would be diagnosed with blood clots that threatened his career and caused him to miss a season.

Anyways, we know idea what type of player Koloko will turn out to be.

[Raptorfan2012]

Masai takes another L, godammit.

"We need to trade Siakam for AJ Griffin before it's too late!" - PhilBlackson

How so? Guy had health issues and couldn't play for a while. Came back months later but we already had our roster pretty much set. Do you think Koloko is that much better than Bruno Fernando? I don't...