The Los Angeles Lakers gave Quincy Olivari a two-way deal on Saturday. In response to that news, LeBron James took to social media to share his congratulations on Instagram.
“YEEEEAAAAHHHHH Q!!!!! Congrats kid 🙏🫡👑”
A two-way deal pays players one contract for their time between the NBA and G League.
The Lakers waived Colin Castleton to make room on the roster. Castleton played a lot for the Lakers' G League team but hadn't progressed much on the NBA side. The Lakers also gave two-way deals to Christian Koloko and Armel Traore.
During Friday's preseason game against the Warriors, he scored 22 points with seven rebounds and two assists in 39 minutes. He also fared well against the Milwaukee Bucks last week by tallying 11 points, five rebounds and two assists in nine minutes. The 23-year-old went undrafted out of Xavier and joined the Lakers' Summer League team.
Lakers rounding out roster for the regular season
With the 2024-25 NBA regular season days away, the Lakers are trying to configure their depth chart best. They added Grayson Murphy to the roster on Friday and cut Kylor Kelley and Jordan Goodwin.
The Lakers are still waiting for Koloko to be cleared, but that's been the same story for nearly a month.
Head coach JJ Redick had big praise for Olivari a week ago, via Spectrum SportsNet.
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“Ray Allen used to always talk about every time you step on the floor, it’s a tryout essentially. There’s always people watching you. There’s guys that have earned a roster spot for their play in Summer League, for their play in training camp, a preseason game, guys that run rotation minutes in garbage time in a regular season game. So I don’t take what that group did lightly at all. Really impressive.
“I thought, in particular, Quincy (Olivari) just completely changed the game. And to me, and I told our guys this after, what he did is the blueprint for what we’re asking for a few of our players in terms of just picking up full court, being disruptive, taking time off the shot clock. I thought he just executed exactly what we want from someone in his position and we’ve challenged a number of guys and they’ve done it well to varying degrees. But I haven’t seen it executed that well until tonight with Quincy.
“He's been in our gym now for a couple months, besides just the Summer League. He has an infectious spirit and soul about him. It’s not that he’s some super talkative, boisterous guy, but he just carries himself well, he carries himself with intent, his work ethic is really high, and I think people respond to that.”
The Los Angeles Lakers begin their regular season at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday, October 22 at 10:00 p.m. EST.
