Second-year Lakers forward Adou Thiero missed the California Classic summer league finale Monday because of a right wrist injury.
Thiero suffered the injury while falling in the Lakers ' sudden-death, double-overtime win Sunday, summer league coach Ty Abbott said Monday, and the 22-year-old wore a brace on his right wrist while cheering the Lakers to an 88-84 win over the San Antonio Spurs at Chase Center. Thiero's status for Las Vegas summer league games, which begin Friday for the Lakers, is unclear, Abbott said.
Thiero kept a towel draped over his right hand for most of the game. Chris Mañon started in Thiero's place and starred with 24 points and eight rebounds.
The Lakers re-signed Mañon to a two-way contract Saturday primarily for his defense. The 6-foot-4 guard finished second in voting for the G League defensive player of the year last season as a rookie.
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But Mañon showed an improved offensive game while making three of six three-pointers Sunday and shooting seven for 10 from the field with two assists. Mañon, who averaged 10.3 points with the South Bay Lakers last season, said he focused on developing consistency in his three-point shot this summer to prove he's "not a black hole out there."
Abbott said the second-year guard's growth goes beyond just making shots; Mañon has improved his ballhandling and off-ball skills as well.
"His screening, his ability to get behind the defense and then play in the paint, make the right reads," Abbott said. "He's also done a really, really good job of making the right pass, right? The guys come and screen for him, we get roller behind. And he's doing a good job of finding, creating that advantage and then keeping the advantage by making the right pass and then playing off of that."
Mañon, guard Peter Suder and forward AK Okereke signed two-way contracts with the Lakers. The flexible contracts are reserved for young, promising players so they can get valuable playing time with the G League while still providing necessary depth to NBA teams. Last season, the Lakers got standout performances from two-way players Nick Smith Jr. and Drew Timme that contributed to important wins while the team was struggling with injuries.
Suder was the Mid-American Conference player of the year last season, averaging 14.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.3 steals while leading Miami (Ohio) to a 31-0 regular-season record.
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Okereke, the last of the group to sign his two-way contract Sunday, took a path to the NBA similar to Mañon's: three years at Cornell, a graduate transfer year at Vanderbilt, then a two-way contract with the Lakers.
The 6-7, 245-pound forward averaged 9.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists at Vanderbilt and shot 40% from three-point range. Getting a two-way contract with the Lakers "means everything," Okereke said, especially after his career stalled heading into college.
When colleges weren't recruiting him, Okereke wasn't sure if he could continue. It took a prep year after high school for Okereke to hone his skills enough to get on Cornell's radar. It also left Okereke with "a chip on my shoulder."
"I'm very grateful for this opportunity, but also at the same time, [I] have the confidence that I know I should be here," said Okereke, who had 20 points and nine rebounds in the Lakers' three California Classic games. "... Throughout my career, I've shown continued progression on a lot of different fronts, and that's not going to stop here. I'm going to continue to get better and obviously just kind of make my way up."
The Lakers have a history of turning undrafted players into NBA contributors. Austin Reaves , undrafted in 2021, just signed a four-year, $185-million contract with the team. Finding the next unheralded star begins in summer league and G League games, Abbott said.
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"You start with putting guys in positions that they'll be in and then you try to give them a couple of things that may be a little bit outside of what their role with the Lakers would be," said Abbott, the team's player development coach. "Just to kind of see where they're at.
"And then you work with them. You work with them, you invest in them, you build a trust, go to work every day, you try to build those work habits, those professional work habits for those players. … Try to use all your resources. I think that all of our coaches are willing and capable of getting on the floor with our guys to try to help them to the best of our ability."
Thiero, a second-round pick last year, is one of the Lakers' latest projects. Playing in the summer league for the first time after a knee injury kept him out of the important exhibition games last season, Thiero scored 22 points in two California Classic games, shooting 31.6% from the field. After saying he wanted to build up his confidence and consistency with his three-point shooting, Thiero missed all three of his attempts and shot only three for six from the free-throw line.
First-round pick Cameron Carr played only the first half Monday, finishing with five points, one rebound, one assist, one steal, one block and three fouls in 12 minutes 49 seconds. He sat out of the second half because of a bothersome toenail, Abbott said, but the coach doesn't anticipate the problem lingering.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .
