{"id":778998,"date":"2026-07-04T03:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T03:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/778998\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T03:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T03:34:21","slug":"knicks-prepared-to-battle-lakers-for-30-million-nuggets-veteran-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/778998\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks prepared to battle Lakers for $30 million Nuggets veteran center"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Knicks<\/a> have found their replacement for Mitchell Robinson, who signed a three-year, $47 million contract with the Boston Celtics<\/a> on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Friday, the franchise signed 32-year-old veteran center Andre Drummond to serve as Karl-Anthony Towns\u2019 backup in 2026-27. According to SNY\u2019s Ian Begley<\/a>, the Knicks could follow up their Drummond signing with a deal for a 6-foot-11 Denver Nuggets<\/a> veteran center.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnicks have secured agreement with free agent Andre Drummond, source confirms,\u201d Begley wrote on X\/Twitter. \u201cDrummond, former Mount Vernon star, will be backup five for Karl-Anthony Towns after Mitchell Robinson’s exit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDrummond has agreed to a one-year deal. First reported by HoopsHype’s Mike Scotto. “If he becomes free agent, Jonas Valanciunas is on NYK radar as 3rd center, per sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks will face stiff competition for Valanciunas, though, as the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> are also interested<\/a> in the former Toronto Raptors<\/a> All-Rookie center after shipping Deandre Ayton to the Washington Wizards<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lakers will now focus on finding Walker Kessler’s backup on the market — with centers such as Andre Drummond, Jonas Valanciunas, and Kevon Looney among those being considered,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Shams Charania stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Athletic limitations aside, Valanciunas is a respectable low-post-oriented center who relies heavily on polished footwork and manipulation tactics (shot fakes, for instance) to finish around the rim.\u00a0The 34-year-old contributed 8.7 points and 5.1 rebounds in 65 contests with the Denver Nuggets last season in a backup role, connecting on 58.2% of his field goals.<\/p>\n

If Looney becomes available, there\u2019s a good chance Valanciunas could land with New York this month.<\/p>\n

More NBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Knicks have found their replacement for Mitchell Robinson, who signed a three-year, $47 million contract…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-778998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}