The Lakers announced on Friday that they had withdrawn William Kyle III to sign Rafael Castro (Link to Twitter Hobie Price of The California Post). It’s a deal 10 for Castro, tweets ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
Castro signed two-way contract with Houston at the end of August, but the Rockets refused his eight days ago. The 23-year-old big man didn’t hear his name called in June’s NBA draft after being ranked No. 68 by ESPN’s Jeremy Wu final pre-project bigboard.
Castro, who struggled to win playing time during his two seasons with Providence from 2022-24, transferred to George Washington for his junior season and became the team’s regular center. He was named to the All-Atlantic 10 Second Team and the All-Defensive Conference Team in each of his two years with the Revolutioners.
As a senior in 2025/26, Castro averaged 15.3 points, 9.1 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.7 blocks in 27.3 minutes per game in 27 appearances. He is shooting 62.7% from the field and 66.1% from free throws.
After that, Kyle spent training camp and part of the preseason in Los Angeles signing Appendix 10 of the September 27 contract. The 6’9″ center/forward averaged 8.4 ppg, 7.1 ppg and 2.5 ppg in 32 games (28.1 mpg) for Syracuse last season.
The 10-contract addition allows a player to earn a bonus of up to $91,000 if he opts out of his preseason contracts and spends at least 60 days with his team’s G-League affiliate. In this case, it would be the Coachella Valley Lakers, formerly known as the South Bay Lakers.