ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 DeLand native and former University of Florida standout Colin Castleton is back on familiar ground after earning a two-way contract with the Orlando Magic.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Colin Castleton is currently on a two-way contract with the Magic
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The center made his Orlando debut on March 19 against the Charlotte Hornets
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The Florida native grew up in DeLand and played three seasons at the University of Florida<\/p>\n
After three seasons in the NBA G League and two in the NBA, Castleton views his recent return to Florida as a homecoming.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a blessing just being able to have the opportunity to come back, not be far from family,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd come to training camp and work my way up to a two-way (contract). This has been a big blessing throughout the whole season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Castleton played 17 games with the Magic\u2019s G League team, the Osceola Magic, last year before getting a shot in the NBA. He played in 42 games with the Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cContinue to stay ready, every day. You know, one day you wake up and you get a phone call, and you\u2019ve got to sign a 10-day. You\u2019ve got to be ready. You\u2019ve got to start in a game, you might have to play a certain amount of minutes,” Castleton said. “I think just being ready every day, not knowing when that phone call is going to be or when your next opportunity will be on a two-way. Just continuing to be the same person every day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
His strong finish last season earned him an invitation to training camp with the Magic. After the preseason, Orlando converted his deal to a two-way contract. Castleton has dealt with a broken left thumb that sidelined him for four months.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou take it with a stride. I’ve been injured before. So, just understanding the rehab process, being a pro every day,” he said. “And just being willing to work as hard as you can and get back to 100% where you were right before the injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
Castleton has had his best season in the G League, averaging more than 17 points and 10 rebounds per game. He got the call-up and made his Magic debut last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cContinuing to just be the physical presence I am in the G League and to just continue to showcase, day in and day out, that I want to win every game and just help my teammates,\u201d Castleton said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 DeLand native and former University of Florida standout Colin Castleton is back on familiar ground…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[1981,1970,1977,7,950,12325,48,6,67,47,76,3883,46097,1979,66,83,50261,1974],"class_list":["post-679864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando-magic","tag-app-professional-sports","tag-app-sports","tag-app-top-stories","tag-basketball","tag-florida-gators","tag-florida-sports","tag-magic","tag-nba","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-magic","tag-orlandomagic","tag-osceola-county","tag-professional-basketball","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-thomas-cook","tag-top-stories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116295016981539864","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}