{"id":783790,"date":"2026-07-07T01:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T01:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/783790\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T01:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T01:24:14","slug":"lakers-officially-sign-3-players-to-two-way-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/783790\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Officially Sign 3 Players to Two-Way Contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6t\">After two games of the California Classic, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/lakers\/onsi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> have had an opportunity to see what they might be getting in the young talent the team has brought in this summer.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6w\">Although rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/lakers\/onsi\/lakers-rookie-cameron-carr-sends-strong-message-about-earning-role-in-la\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cameron Carr<\/a> has stolen the show, impressing through two games thus far and coming off a 26-point performance, the Lakers also have three other players on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/lakers\/onsi\/lakers-announce-nba-summer-league-roster-and-schedule\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NBA Summer League roster<\/a> who have an opportunity to see time on the floor next season.<\/p>\n<p>Lakers Sign 3 Players to Two-Way Contracts<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"72\">The Lakers have announced that they have signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/lakers\/onsi\/lakers-act-fast-to-sign-undrafted-forward\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">AK Okereke<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/lakers\/onsi\/lakers-sign-undrafted-sharpshooter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Peter Suder<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/lakers\/onsi\/lakers-make-defensive-minded-guard-chris-manon-restricted-free-agent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Chris Manon<\/a> to two-way contracts.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"75\">After the 2026 NBA Draft came to an end, the Lakers didn\u2019t waste any time agreeing to deals with undrafted players, with Okereke and Suder being the first two players on the team\u2019s list.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"78\">Okereke played for Vanderbilt before getting the call from the Lakers, averaging 9.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game, shooting 48.1 percent from the field and 40 percent from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7b\">Suder made a name for himself as a knockdown shooter for Miami (Ohio), shooting 42.1 percent from distance and 54.6 percent from the floor while averaging 14.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">Perhaps the most notable of the three young players is Manon. The defensive-minded guard played on a two-way contract with the Lakers last season, but spent the bulk of his time in the G League suiting up for the South Bay Lakers.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7l\">Manon made quite an impression during his time in the G League, finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting and earning a spot on the G League All-Defensive Team. The Lakers clearly feel he has enough upside to take one of the three two-way spots on the team ahead of the 2026-27 NBA season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7o\">Last season, the Lakers had several players on two-way contracts, including Manon. Drew Timme and Nick Smith Jr. saw the most time on the floor, while Christian Koloko ended up getting waived in November. Timme replaced Koloko and Smith eventually had his deal converted into a standard contract so he could be on the roster for the NBA playoffs.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7v\">Although Manon, Okereke and Suder are currently on the team on two-way deals, that could change after the NBA Summer League or throughout the 2026-27 campaign.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7y\">In the meantime, these three young players will try to prove their worth in the final game of the California Classic and the games to follow in Las Vegas during the NBA Summer League.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"81\">Sign up to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/lakers\/onsi\/newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">free newsletter<\/a> and follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@RyanWardLA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RyanWardLA\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LakersOnSI\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">X\/Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ryanwardla\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a> for the latest news.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After two games of the California Classic, the Los Angeles Lakers have had an opportunity to see what&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-783790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}