The Los Angeles Lakers may be trying to bring a former UCLA kid home.
Veteran NBA big man Kevon Looney is on the Lakers’ radar in free agency, veteran NBA writer Marc Stein reported on Saturday. Stein notes that former top-five pick Jonas Valanciunas is also an option whom the Lakers are considering as they look to sign another frontcourt piece.
Looney, 30, is perhaps the more interesting of those two names. For one, Looney already has quite the collection of hardware thanks to his memorable run with the Golden State Warriors from 2015-25.
Over that span, Looney was a three-time NBA champion who became a cult hero in Golden State over the years due to his hustle and his hard work on the boards, which proved invaluable to countless Warriors playoff runs. Despite standing a modest 6-foot-9, Looney was an unsung hero of those Golden State championship teams as the player who did all the dirty work and filled whatever role the Warriors asked of him.
Last summer though, Looney finally left Golden State in free agency to sign with the New Orleans Pelicans. He quickly fell out of the rotation for the lowly Pelicans though and averaged just 2.8 points and 5.6 rebounds in 14.7 minutes per game over only 21 total appearances last season.
As for the Lakers, they need a backup center to the newly-acquired seven-footer Walker Kessler after trading Deandre Ayton to the Washington Wizards and letting Jaxson Hayes leave in free agency to the Utah Jazz. With Looney having played his one season of college ball at UCLA in 2014-15, a homecoming of sorts to L.A. might be fitting (especially if he can bring his patented Rick James look as well).
