Kevin Looney signed a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday.
One of the few New Orleans Pelicans players who won't return next year just got signed as Kevon Looney just agreed to a one-year, $3.9 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, per Shams Charania.
The Lakers get a veteran center and a great locker room leader in Looney, 30, who is trying to extend his career. Hopefully for everyone involved, this tenure will be more productive than the center's single season with the Pelicans.
New Orleans signed Looney last offseason to a two-year, $16 million deal with the second season being an $8 million team option. He played in just 21 games and wasn't a fit with what that campaign wound up being.
Looney averaged 2.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists on 41.7/15.4/70.0 shooting splits across 14.7 minutes per game. He's been trying to add the three-point shot to his game, especially in practice, but went 2-for-13 on the season (career 14-for-78). If he is able to extend his game to the three-point line, he'd certainly be able to add a little bit to his career.
As things stand, the Pelicans ended up not being able to play Looney very much last season, as he was just a bit too slow for the tempo that they were trying to play with. Once the year fell apart, it became obvious that New Orleans was not going to pick up his option and mostly stopped playing him.
Players in the locker room spoke highly of Looney, who never complained and stayed as ready as possible if his name ever got called. His best game came against the Utah Jazz, where he had seven points, 12 rebounds and six assists with two steals and a block. He was a +30 in that game, a 156-137 win.
