The Lakers announced Friday that they have waived William Kyle III in order to sign Rafael Castro (Twitter link Khobi Price of The California Post). It’s an Exhibit 10 deal for Castro, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Castro signed a two-way contract with Houston in late August, but the Rockets waived him 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 on Jeremy Woo of ESPN’s final pre-draft big board.
Castro, who struggled to gain playing time in two seasons at Providence from 2022-24, transferred to George Washington for his junior season and became the team’s full-time starting center. He was named to the All-Atlantic 10 second team and the conference’s All-Defensive team during each of his two years with the Revolutionaries.
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 across 27 appearances. He shot 62.7% from the field and 66.1% from the free throw line.
Kyle spent training camp and part of the preseason with Los Angeles after signing an Exhibit 10 contract on September 27. The 6’9″ center/forward averaged 8.4 PPG, 7.1 RPG and 2.5 BPG in 32 games (28.1 MPG) with Syracuse last season.
Exhibit 10 contracts enable a player to earn a bonus worth up to $91K if he’s waived before the season and spends at least 60 days with his team’s G League affiliate. In this case, that would be the Coachella Valley Lakers, formerly known as the South Bay Lakers.