{"id":597,"date":"2026-07-07T22:25:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=597"},"modified":"2026-07-07T22:25:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:25:42","slug":"lakers-land-their-backup-center-in-veteran-kevon-looney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=597","title":{"rendered":"Lakers land their backup center in veteran Kevon Looney"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/9f3f412\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3969x2084+0+281\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe2%2F60%2F70f3806740faa44c50f676412a64%2Fpelicans-jazz-basketball-82479.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Lakers land their backup center in veteran Kevon Looney\" title=\"Lakers land their backup center in veteran Kevon Looney\" \/><\/div><p><\/p>\n<div data-element=\"story-body\" data-subscriber-content=\"\">\n<p><a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/lakers\">The Lakers<\/a> got their backup big man when <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/looneke01.html\" target=\"_blank\">Kevon Looney<\/a> signed a one-year, $3.9-million deal on Tuesday, people not authorized to speak publicly told The Times.<\/p>\n<p>The 6-foot-9 Looney won three championships with the Golden State Warriors, in 2017, 2018 and 2021. He played last season with the New Orleans Pelicans. Looney, 30, is an 11-year veteran who went to UCLA. He\u2019s a strong rebounder, very good defender and sets solid screens for teammates.<\/p>\n<p>Looney will be the backup behind starter <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/story\/2026-07-06\/new-lakers-center-walker-kessler-engaged-2025-miss-america-abbie-stockard\">Walker Kessler<\/a>, who was acquired in a <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/lakers\/story\/2026-07-01\/lakers-reload-with-four-new-players-including-sandro-mamukelashvili\">trade<\/a> from the Utah Jazz and agreed to a four-year, $130-million deal. The Lakers <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/lakers\/story\/2026-07-03\/lakers-trade-deandre-ayton-to-wizards-for-jaden-hardy-draft-picks\">traded<\/a> last season\u2019s starting center, Deandre Ayton, and backup Jaxson Hayes signed with the Jazz.<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers now have a 14-man roster and have room for another player.<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Kuminga is a player the Lakers are after, according to people with knowledge of the situation who said L.A. is looking at a two-year, $20-million deal for Kuminga, the sort of athletic wing player the Lakers need to start at small forward.<\/p>\n<p>He has the size (6-7) and is young (23). He averaged 12.2 points and 5.6 rebounds and shot 33.3% from three-point range last season  while playing for the Warriors and Atlanta Hawks.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lakers got their backup big man when Kevon Looney signed a one-year, $3.9-million deal on Tuesday, people not authorized to speak publicly told The Times. The 6-foot-9 Looney won three championships with the Golden State Warriors, in 2017, 2018 and 2021. He played last season with the New Orleans Pelicans. Looney, 30, is an&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/9f3f412\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3969x2084+0+281\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe2%2F60%2F70f3806740faa44c50f676412a64%2Fpelicans-jazz-basketball-82479.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1277,887,1279,502,510,1280,1278],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-backup","tag-center","tag-kevon","tag-lakers","tag-land","tag-looney","tag-veteran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}