{"id":800079,"date":"2026-08-02T22:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/800079\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T22:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T22:54:12","slug":"lakers-were-kevon-looneys-top-destination-excited-to-play-with-luka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/800079\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers were Kevon Looney\u2019s \u2018top destination\u2019, excited to play with Luka"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the Lakers\u2019 biggest frontcourt addition this offseason is Walker Kessler, they also added Kevon Looney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At 29 years old, Looney is a veteran on these new-look Lakers. He has championship experience and can provide stability at a position that has seen a ton of turnover in LA over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis summer\u2019s been great. Being a free agent this year, I didn\u2019t know what was going to happen. Lots of moving parts to this offseason with a lot of teams. Once the Lakers made a few moves and they had a need for a center, this was my top destination and I was able to make it happen and I\u2019m super excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s great to hear that a player who signed with the Lakers always wanted to. As a backup, he\u2019s likely to have a smaller role, and the first part of shining in that scenario is embracing it. So far, it seems Looney won\u2019t be having a problem with that.<\/p>\n

He also won\u2019t have to face Luka Don\u010di\u0107 anymore, which he mentioned as another positive of joining the purple and gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying against him sucks, especially being a big man. You\u2019re in a lot of pick and rolls. You get iso\u2019d on. He picks on people and you got to guard him 1-on-1 and he\u2019s probably the toughest guy to guard in the league. I got peak against him on the Lakers and on the playoffs when he was in Dallas. I\u2019m excited to be on his team and be able to learn from him and be able to play pick and roll with him. He\u2019s probably the best pick-and-roll player in the league. So, getting to learn how he wants me to set screens and different things like that, I\u2019m excited about it. He\u2019s one of the best guys in the league so it makes my life a lot easier playing with him so I\u2019m super excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luka is a pick-and-roll king. Last year, he had 648 possessions in this action, more than any other player in the NBA. The second closest was LaMelo Ball with 593.<\/p>\n

So, being a good pick-and-roll partner with Luka will be essential if Looney is going to have a successful stint in LA. Luckily, Looney has plenty of experience having an elite player initiating this play from his Golden State days with Steph Curry.<\/p>\n

Looney doesn\u2019t have to be at his prime to be a productive player for LA. All he has to do is remain healthy and do the dirty work that can help open up the offense for everyone else.<\/p>\n

So far, he seems excited to do so. Hopefully, that\u2019ll translate to some quality minutes on the floor in the fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the Lakers\u2019 biggest frontcourt addition this offseason is Walker Kessler, they also added Kevon Looney. At 29…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[43364,355,99],"class_list":["post-800079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-lakers-news","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}