Lakers' Robbie Avila Weighs Shocking College Return After Eligibility Ruling
A Colorado court injunction handed the undrafted big man a fifth NCAA year. Now his Exhibit 10 deal with LA is suddenly in doubt.
Deep-league dart at best, and he may not even suit up in the NBA.
- Signed Exhibit 10 deal with Lakers after going undrafted in June
- Averaged 12.8 PPG, 4.5 REB, 4.1 AST as a senior at Saint Louis
- Named A-10 Player of the Year in his final college season
- 6-foot-10, 240-pound center; barely played in Summer League
- Court injunction restored eligibility for 2022 HS class
Robbie Avila's path to an NBA roster just got a plot twist. The undrafted big man, who inked an Exhibit 10 contract with the Lakers in June, is now weighing a return to college after a U.S. District Court judge in Colorado granted a class-wide preliminary injunction on Friday. The ruling forces the NCAA to restore eligibility for high school class of 2022 athletes who ran out of it this spring — Avila included.
That means the 6-foot-10, 240-pound center — who graduated from Saint Louis earlier this year and averaged 12.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists as a senior en route to A-10 Player of the Year honors — suddenly has a real decision. Per insider reporting, Avila is waiting to see what his options are before committing to either the Lakers or one more college run.
The timing matters. Avila logged only limited minutes during NBA Summer League and didn't leave much of a mark. Exhibit 10 deals are non-guaranteed and low-stakes by design — they're a foot in the door, usually a pathway to a two-way contract or a G League assignment, not a rotation spot. For a player who barely saw the floor in Vegas, a guaranteed featured role back in college could look a lot more appealing than fighting for scraps at the end of an LA bench.
For fantasy purposes, this was never a needle-mover to begin with. There's no track record of NBA production to lean on, no established role, and now a genuine chance he isn't even in the league this season. Avila built his brand on personality — the glasses, the 'Cream Abdul-Jabbar' nickname — more than on any projectable pro output.
The fantasy takeaway: don't spend a thought on Avila in redraft or standard formats. Even if he stays with the Lakers, an Exhibit 10 guy who didn't crack the Summer League rotation isn't sniffing fantasy relevance in 2026-27. Keep him on the watch list purely as a name to revisit if he lands a two-way deal and injuries open up frontcourt minutes — but that's a long, speculative chain of ifs. For now, this is a headline, not a roster move.
