{"id":785944,"date":"2026-07-08T01:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T01:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/785944\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T01:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T01:34:11","slug":"lakers-kevon-looney-agree-to-one-year-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/785944\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers, Kevon Looney Agree To One-Year Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lakers and free agent center Kevon Looney<\/a> have agreed to terms on a one-year contract, agent Todd Ramasar tells Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"According to Charania, the deal will be worth $3.9MM, which indicates it\u2019s a minimum-salary<\/a> agreement. Looney will earn roughly $3.88MM, while the Lakers take on a cap hit of about $2.45MM.<\/p>\n

After spending 10 seasons in Golden State from 2015-25, Looney signed a two-year, $16MM deal with the Pelicans last summer. He ended up playing a very limited role in New Orleans, however, averaging 2.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in 14.7 minutes per game across just 21 outings (eight starts). A rebuilding Pelicans team chose to give most of the playing time at the five to youngsters Derik Queen<\/a> and Yves Missi<\/a>, then declined its $8MM option<\/a> on Looney for the 2026\/27 season.<\/p>\n

Still, Looney is only 30 years old and established himself during his time with the Warriors as a reliable rebounder and screen setter, as well as a positive locker room presence.<\/p>\n

When he became an unrestricted free agent this offseason, Looney emerged as a target for multiple potential playoff teams seeking a low-cost backup. In addition to the Lakers, the Knicks<\/a> and Celtics<\/a> were said to have interest in the veteran big man. New York has since signed Andre Drummond<\/a>, while Boston ended up spending bigger on Mitchell Robinson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles has made some major changes at their center position this offseason. Jaxson Hayes<\/a> left for Utah as a free agent and Deandre Ayton<\/a> is being traded to Washington as the club prepares to bring in Walker Kessler<\/a> as its starting center of the present and future. Looney could be Kessler\u2019s primary backup in 2026\/27 if the Lakers plan to use Sandro Mamukelashvili<\/a> primarily at the four, though it remains possible they\u2019ll add more depth in the middle.<\/p>\n

Looney\u2019s deal will be finalized after the Lakers officially complete their additions of Kessler, Mamukelashvili, and Quentin Grimes<\/a>, since those moves will use cap room. No cap space will be necessary to sign Looney, who will be brought in using the minimum salary exception<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lakers and free agent center Kevon Looney have agreed to terms on a one-year contract, agent Todd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,147773,85],"class_list":["post-785944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-kevon-looney","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}