Lakers News: Los Angeles Rookie Reveals Goals For First NBA Season

How real was his impressive Summer League run?

New two-way Los Angeles Lakers signing Colin Castleton emerged as one of the surprise standouts of this year's Summer League in Las Vegas. Across his five Summer League contests, the undrafted rookie big man out of Florida posted averages of 13.4 points on 51% shooting from the floor and 81% shooting from the charity stripe, along with 5.6 rebounds, 1.0 steals and 0.6 blocks a night.

During an interview with Trevor Lane of Laker Nation, Castleton explained his approach to Summer League and his impending rookie NBA season.

“I was focused on killing Summer League, and I feel like I did a good job there,” Castleton explained. “Now I can focus on getting ready for training camp and put myself in the right mindset so I can have an opportunity later in the year. That’s my mindset.”

“I’ll just go in there with the right approach, wanting to learn from the best players in the world. I’m going to soak up all the information they give me," he continued. But I feel like I’m definitely ready to play at this level so we’ll just see how everything falls out, but I’m definitely excited for training camp.”

“I’m just working as hard as I can everyday and let the dominos fall the way they fall," Castleton noted. "Being able to focus on taking it one step at a time, doing what I needed to do in Summer League, now getting prepared for training camp and then going from there. I’m just worried about working hard and getting better.”

The 6'11", 250-pound center/power forward was a three-time All-SEC selection during his three seasons as a Gator (he kicked off his NCAA career with Rice University from 2018-20 before transferring). It's unclear just how effective he'll be at the next level, but he's generally considered to be more of a project, and ideally a veteran-laden Los Angeles squad that fancies itself a contender won't ever need to lean on him too heavily during 2023-24.

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