The Los Angeles Lakers signed Kevon Looney this summer as a backup big man behind Walker Kessler, but three games into the new season, the three-time NBA champion doesn’t look like an answer to the team’s frontcourt issues, and a trade landing a new center could come soon.
Looney arrived on a one-year minimum deal, and though the Lakers were never going to give him a ton of minutes, it’s clear that they need to find an upgrade at his position, likely through a trade.
Head coach JJ Redick has a few other frontcourt players like Jarred Vanderbilt, Adou Thiero, and Sandro Mamukelashvili, but with injuries and the overall concerns on all three, going after one of the several names the Lakers have been linked to in trade rumors might be the best way to get a true big man upgrade.
Lakers Handed Poor Kevon Looney, Frontcourt Outlook 3 Games Into Season
Writing for LakeShowLife.com, Svyatoslav Rovenchuk provided a bleak outlook on Looney’s tenure with the Lakers so far. He’s played just eight minutes per game and has scored a total of eight points and grabbed just eight rebounds through the team’s first three wins.
“If there is one clear source of dissatisfaction for the Los Angeles Lakers and their fans amid a 3-0 start, it would be the underwhelming minutes Kevon Looney has played as a backup center. Through three games, the veteran big man has certainly looked his age,” Rovenchuk wrote.
“The numbers here really are not totally necessary either. Just the eye test alone would tell you that Looney is not moving adequately to keep up with everyone else on the Lakers. His positioning can still be sound, as he is a very smart basketball player, but that is about it.”
With the Thiero injury, the need for Mamukelashvili to play on the perimeter to add shooting, and Redick’s decision to keep Vanderbilt mostly out of the lineup, Looney hasn’t done enough to play in the minutes when Kessler is off the court.
“Kevon Looney has been rough to start the season. Many were calling for an upgrade at backup center throughout a preseason of Looney struggling. Nothing got done, and the Lakers entered 2026-27 with the former Golden State Warriors champion as a key option in the frontcourt,” he added.
Rovenchuk proposed Vanderbilt coming back into the rotation, and when Thiero returns healthy, Mamu could play more time at the center position. However, neither of those options truly fix the Lakers’ need for a different backup center, which leads to the idea of the team making a trade, which they’ve been rumored to be trying to do for the past few weeks, with a few top targets in mind.
Trade Rumors Link Los Angeles To A Few Center Targets
The most prominent name mentioned in Lakers trade rumors is Jericho Sims of the Milwaukee Bucks. Los Angeles tried using Dalton Knecht as a trade chip for him, but the Bucks wanted more than the Lakers were willing to offer. There is a chance Bronny James could move the needle for Milwaukee to give up Sims, but at this point, that remains uncertain.
“If I were the Lakers, I’d be trying to trade Bronny right now to some owner who wants to sell some jerseys. I’d rather keep Knecht on the books as possible trade salary than cut him and deal with dead money. The Lakers don’t really need the James brand like other teams do,” Sam Quinn of CBS Sports wrote in a post on X about James as a trade asset.
Kel’el Ware has also been mentioned as a potential Lakers trade target. As Jovan Buha recently said, Ware could even play minutes alongside Kessler while also being his backup.
“I think he can play with Kessler. You can also play with Mamu, and it does give you an element of size, rebounding, rim protection. That backline of Ware and Kessler is scary,” he said. “I think that the interesting thing with Ware is how young he is and how talented he is. He could be more of the four or like the Jaren Jackson Jr. type in this scenario.”
Other names linked to the Lakers are Moussa Cisse, Jalen Smith, and free agent Dwight Powell.
“To me, Moussa Cisse – I don’t wanna overrate Moussa Cisse – but I think he’s the exact type of big that would just eat with the Lakers,” Buha added. “And he would be a dynamic lob threat with Luka and Austin, and he just has to screen, roll, finish. He could do that…Keeping it realistic with a minimum-level player, Moussa Cisse is the archetype to me.”
The team has also been rumored to have interest in a few forwards, but as it relates to finding someone to replace Looney, adding a true center with rebounding and rim-protecting abilities is likely the best avenue for the front office to explore.
For now, the Lakers have a backup center problem. There are a few options on the table, but making a trade might be the best way to get a true frontcourt upgrade sometime before the February deadline.
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