The Los Angeles Lakers just reminded everyone what “win-now” really looks like.

In one move, they cut ties with a recovering 7’1″ shot-blocker fans had grown attached to and handed his two-way spot to a bearded Gonzaga legend who’s been cooking the G League. Christian Koloko is out. Drew Timme is in. And Lakers Twitter… has feelings.

This isn’t just a footnote transaction. It’s a window into how this front office is thinking around Luka Doncic, Deandre Ayton, and a suddenly crowded frontcourt.

On paper, the logic is cold but clear.

Drew Timme has been lighting up South Bay. Over the recent stretch, he’s basically lived in the 25–30 point range, including a 30.0 PPG week, with around 7–8 boards and 4–5 assists a night. He’s hitting 51.5% from the field and about 33% from three, while functioning as a polished short-roll hub who can catch, survey, and punish defenses instead of just finishing plays. That’s not theoretical upside, that’s production you can screenshot.

Christian Koloko, meanwhile, is still in the “what if?” phase. The 7’1″ rim protector and former Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year missed the entire 2023–24 season with a serious blood-clotting issue. Since then, the runway’s been short. He averaged roughly 2.3 points and 2.4 rebounds in 9-ish minutes per game for the Lakers last season and barely cracked the rotation this fall before getting waived.

Layer on context: Deandre Ayton is dealing with a knee contusion, Maxi Kleber and Jaxson Hayes are already in the big-man mix, and small-ball options like Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt can soak up 5 minutes. With their three two-way slots already filled, the Lakers had to pick a lane. They chose the guy who’s putting up G League Player of the Week numbers today over the 7-footer still trying to rediscover his rhythm tomorrow.

Present production over long-term upside. It’s ruthless. It’s also very on-brand for a team trying to squeeze every win out of a Luka window.

Who the Lakers Are Getting in Drew Timme

If you only remember Drew Timme as the mustached villain from March Madness, you’re about two chapters behind.

Timme is Gonzaga’s all-time leading scorer, a two-time WCC Player of the Year and three-time All-American who has turned “old man at the Y” footwork into a legitimate pro weapon. He had a brief NBA cameo with the Brooklyn Nets, averaging 12.1 points and 7.2 boards in nine games, and he’s taken that same touch and timing straight into the G League.

This season with South Bay, Timme has:

• Dropped a 30.0 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 4.7 APG week and snagged G League Player of the Week honors

• Shot 51.5% from the floor and 33.3% from deep in the Tip-Off Tournament

• Earned rave reviews from coaches for his short-roll playmaking, screening, and decision-making

He’s not the pogo-stick lob threat Koloko is. He is, however, the kind of high-IQ big who can catch out of Luka Doncic pick-and-rolls, make the extra pass, hit a floater, or punish a switch. In practices and scrimmages with LeBron and the main group, he reportedly held up well enough that this move doesn’t feel like a blind leap. It feels like a reward.

All of that comes with a real emotional cost.

Christian Koloko isn’t just another cut. He’s a 7’1″ center who fought his way back from a scary blood-clot diagnosis, won Pac-12 DPOY at Arizona, and showed flashes as exactly the archetype you’d want next to Luka: vertical lob target, rim deterrent, mobile enough to not get played off the floor.

His NBA box score is modest, with averages of around 3.1 PPG and 2.9 RPG as a rookie in Toronto, then 2.4 and 2.5 in limited minutes with the Lakers. However, fans saw enough in his timing and length to buy in. They wanted the story to keep going in purple and gold.

The front office just said, “We’re not sure we can wait.”

Fan Reactions: “I Would Have Stuck With Koloko”

The backlash started immediately, and honestly, some of it is hard to argue with. One fan looked at the decision through the lens of fit with Luka Doncic: “Unless they look at Timme as the Maxi replacement I’m not sure why they get rid of Koloko in just year 2 of returning from a blood clot. Shot blocking lob catching big is exactly Luka’s type not a unathletic undersized 4/5.”

That’s the core critique in one tweet: Drew Timme vs. Christian Koloko isn’t just about who’s “better,” it’s about what kind of center you want next to an elite pick-and-roll playmaker. Doncic has historically thrived with rim-runners and lob threats. Timme’s game lives more below the rim and in the angles. If he’s not a Kleber-type floor spacer yet, and he’s not a Koloko-type vertical plane protector, what exactly is his role in the big-picture rotation?

Another fan put it in simpler terms: “I would have stuck with Koloko! He’s shown that he can play in the G as well as back up for the Lakers N.B.A roster. Bad move in my opinion.”

That’s the loyalty piece. Koloko has produced in the G before and survived real NBA possessions as a backup. So from a purely emotional and narrative standpoint, the idea of cutting him just as he’s two years removed from a blood clot feels… harsh.

And then there’s the confusion crowd: “Watch a decent amount of the games and can’t really tell you why koloko didn’t get more run. Was good idk was he bad couldn’t say.” That’s almost a perfect summary of the Koloko era in L.A.: enough flashes that you notice him, not enough trust from the staff that you can explain the usage pattern. Finally, some fans went straight to the internal depth chart and started rearranging names: “No, but I’m taking koloko over kleber any day.”

That one stings a bit more for the front office, because it frames the choice less as “Timme vs Koloko” and more as “why is this specific vet untouchable when the young rim protector isn’t?” Fair or not, that’s how roster politics look from the outside.

Where fans are split, analysts are much more blunt.

ProFootball Network straight-up said Koloko “did not really pan out” for L.A. and called Drew Timme “definitely an upgrade over Koloko.” They’re looking at the hard data: Koloko’s ~2.3 PPG and 2.4 RPG in low minutes versus Timme steamrolling G League defenses and already showing an NBA-ready offensive package.

The front office sees the same thing. If you’re trying to build a sustainable offense around Luka and Ayton while surviving stretches where Ayton is out hurt, a two-way big who can get you 10–12 real NBA points on touch and timing starts to look more attractive than a defensive project you still don’t fully trust with rotational minutes.

If this feels familiar, it’s because the Lakers have done it before.

In January 2025, they waived fan-favorite guard Quincy Olivari, who was torching the G League for about 17.2 points a night  just to open a two-way spot for center Trey Jemison. Like Koloko, Olivari was beloved online, but only touching the floor in garbage time. Like Timme, Jemison filled a positional need the front office viewed as more urgent.

Different players, same pattern: once a specific hole appears in the depth chart, sentiment loses to fit.

Now it’s on Drew Timme to make this worth the noise. If he can translate even a slice of that South Bay dominance into efficient minutes with Luka Doncic making smart reads out of the short roll, hitting open threes at that 33% clip, and not getting hunted defensively, the move will look savvy in a hurry.

If he struggles, and Christian Koloko lands somewhere else and starts swatting everything in sight? This cut is going to age like milk in the L.A. sun.

For now, the message from the Lakers is brutally simple: on the margins of the roster, they’re going to chase immediate solutions, even if it means saying goodbye to a fan favorite in the middle of a comeback story. In a contender’s world, that’s the tax of trying to win today, and the spotlight is now firmly on Drew Timme to prove they were right.