A commonly discussed topic around the Los Angeles Lakers is their big man situation. For multiple reasons.
One is the back and forth between fans over whether the Lakers made the right call to surrender all that they did to acquire Walker Kessler from the Utah Jazz. The other is questions about what the team will do to solve its backup center position, which is currently being occupied by three-time NBA champion Kevon Looney. While it is often nice to have a guy with rings on the roster, the Lakers might soon be kicking themselves unless they bring in another center to shore up the position behind Kessler.
Looney is far from a bad player; in fact, once the season gets going, he might show that the Lakers never needed to worry about landing another center. But for now, many are worried that L.A. won’t have a dependable option if Kessler, who appeared in just five games last season, is forced to miss time. Or heck, even when he comes out of the game.
Lakers’ Kevon Looney Signing Called Worst Move of Their Summer
Lake Show Life’s Svyatoslav Rovenchuk ranked the three worst moves by the Lakers this offseason. Coming in at the No. 1 spot was signing Looney, who inked a one-year deal in free agency.
“Uninspiring is the right word here,” Rovenchuk wrote. “Kevon Looney has a lot to offer the Lakers in terms of being a locker room leader. It would just be so much nicer if there was a better center to turn to off the bench. … Last year’s campaign with the New Orleans Pelicans was underwhelming from an on-court perspective. After years of playing a banging and bruising style, there were signs of that finally catching up to Looney’s body. Hopefully for the Lakers, that will not be the case and they can squeeze some serviceable minutes out of him when needed. Otherwise, searching for a new backup center will become a pressing matter before next year’s NBA trade deadline.”
Looney was once a star role player for those dynastic Golden State Warriors teams. Yes, that was years ago. Since then, Looney’s minutes per game, points per game and field goal percentage have dropped. For the New Orleans Pelicans last season, the veteran big man appeared in just 21 games. That coupled with Looney’s modest 6’9” frame (by big man standards) probably isn’t making the Lakers feel too comfortable about their center depth.
Will L.A. Make Move for Another Center?
Because it is more than fair to ask: what good is having a potential superstar center if he has no one to help reduce the burden on his shoulders?
“They’re paying (Kessler) to set screens and roll down the lane and provide a real outlet for Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic,” The Athletic’s Tony Jones told Lakers reporter Jovan Buha during an appearance on “Buha’s Block.” “And Doncic plays his best when he has a rim-running center. When he had Dereck Lively (II) and Daniel Gafford in Dallas, Luka Doncic was close to unstoppable because he had that outlet. As good as he has been with the Lakers, he wasn’t on that level, on the Dallas level, because he didn’t have that rim-running center. He didn’t have that guy he could just throw the ball up to. Now, with Walker Kessler, he does have that guy.”
While Kessler absolutely has the ceiling to make the Lakers a true force in the Western Conference, having no true backup option may be asking too much from a player who has been somewhat fragile in his young career.
As The Athletic’s Dan Woike noted, Looney’s “minutes crashing the glass and setting bruising screens for the Warriors had to have some cumulative impact, limiting his mobility and, last season, his availability.” The 30-year-old center may be good for a modest 10 minutes per game, but that is a stark contrast to the roughly 35 minutes per game Kessler will likely play.
With October around the corner, it doesn’t appear that the Lakers are angling to make another move. But that could change in the early-going of next season if things aren’t working out smoothly at center.
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