The Los Angeles Lakers’ plan at backup center was about five hours old when it started coming apart.
On Friday afternoon, shortly after the front office sent Deandre Ayton to the Washington Wizards, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Los Angeles would turn to free agency for Walker Kessler’s understudy and put three veterans on the radar: Andre Drummond, Jonas Valanciunas and Kevon Looney.
By Friday night, Drummond was a Knick. By Saturday morning, the most reliable reporting out of Lithuania had Valanciunas halfway to Kaunas.
That leaves one name, and the Lakers are not the only team on it. ClutchPoints’ Brett Siegel reported late Friday that Los Angeles has reached out to Looney — and that the defending champion New York Knicks, fresh off signing Drummond, have not closed the door on adding Looney themselves.
A three-name list that barely survived the night
The search exists because the Lakers chose to create it. Ayton, who picked up his $8.1 million option for next season on June 29, was rerouted to Washington within a week, with guard Jaden Hardy and a pair of Wizards second-rounders in 2031 and 2032 coming back.
The front office decided a cheaper, more natural reserve made more sense behind its new $130 million starter than a former No. 1 pick on an expiring deal, and Charania’s list framed the shopping trip: three veteran bigs, all gettable at the bottom of the market.
Drummond made the most sense on paper. He knows the building from his 2020-21 stint with the Lakers, and he remains one of the league’s most reliable per-minute rebounders. Instead, Drummond chose the Knicks on a one-year deal worth $3.9 million.
Charania added that several teams pursued the center — the Lakers among them — before he made his call, and the fit in New York was obvious on both ends. The champs had just watched Mitchell Robinson leave for Boston, and Drummond grew up in nearby Mount Vernon.
So the first name on the board lasted roughly five hours. The second may never have been available at all.
Valanciunas has one foot in Lithuania
BasketNews — the Lithuanian outlet with the deepest sourcing on Valanciunas — poured cold water on the idea of the center signing with the Lakers. According to the outlet, Valanciunas has already given EuroLeague club Zalgiris Kaunas his commitment: If Denver lets him out of his contract, he intends to sign a two-year deal in his home country and close out a 14-year NBA run.
The pull toward Europe is not new. BasketNews noted that Valanciunas came close to joining Panathinaikos a year ago, traveling to Greece for a medical before the move collapsed when the Nuggets acquired him and opted to keep him for 2025-26.
He was productive in the reserve role behind Nikola Jokic, appearing in 65 games and averaging 8.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game on 58.2 percent shooting. As pure production goes, he would be the best center left on the market — if he wanted to stay in it.
The mechanics matter here, and they come with a date. Valanciunas is on a one-year, $10 million contract with Denver, and Jake Fischer reported back in November that the two sides pushed the guarantee date on that salary from June 29 to July 8.
Only about $2 million of the $10 million is currently protected, which is exactly the kind of number a team walks away from. If Denver cuts him loose, the question becomes whether any NBA offer beats going home — and even if one could, SNY’s Ian Begley has reported the Knicks would consider Valanciunas as a third center should he shake free.
The Looney standoff with the champions
That funnels everything to Looney, and here, the Lakers finally have a live pursuit rather than a wish list.
“The Lakers are another team that has contacted Looney,” Siegel wrote Friday night, adding that New York — even after landing Drummond — remains interested in more frontcourt depth and has not taken a minimum-salary Looney signing off the table.
The resume is the appeal. Looney spent his first 10 seasons in Golden State, won three championships and built a reputation as one of the league’s premier screeners and offensive rebounders, including starting 80 games at center on the Warriors’ 2021-22 title team.
Last season was a step down the mountain: New Orleans declined his $8 million team option after he appeared in just 21 games, and his production thinned to 2.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 14.7 minutes per game.
At 30, listed at 6-foot-9 and 222 pounds, he is not a rim protector and never has been. What he is, at his best, is a connective, physical big who rebounds his position and makes life easier for a star guard — a profile Luka Doncic has thrived next to before.
The basketball pitch clearly favors Los Angeles. Kessler is the unquestioned starter, which makes the Lakers’ opening a real rotation job; in New York, Looney would be queueing behind Karl-Anthony Towns and Drummond as insurance.
The counterweight is relational. Looney’s ties to Knicks coach Mike Brown run back to their years together in Golden State, and Jake Fischer said Thursday on his Bleacher Report stream that he expected Looney to end up in New York. This is a genuine tug-of-war, and it is the last one of its kind on the board.
The in-house option and the money
The Lakers do have a partial answer already on the roster. Sandro Mamukelashvili gives head coach J.J. Redick a hybrid forward-center who can absorb small-ball minutes at the 5, but as built, the roster carries no second true center. Jaxson Hayes, the incumbent backup, departed in free agency, reportedly agreeing to a two-year deal with Utah.
And the vacancy is not theoretical insurance. Kessler’s $130 million file comes with an asterisk — a torn labrum in his left shoulder limited him to five games last season and required November surgery. Whoever backs him up in Los Angeles should plan on real minutes, possibly early.
The money, at least, is simple. With the cap room spent on the Kessler, Grimes and Mamukelashvili deals, the Lakers are shopping in the minimum tier, where a 10-year veteran’s salary runs a shade below $3.9 million for next season — the same number Drummond just took in New York.
This is not a bidding war anyone wins with dollars. It is a recruiting job, and the currency is role.
Why July 8 is the date to watch
Every path left on the board runs through the same stretch of calendar. If Denver guarantees Valanciunas by July 8, he is a Nugget or a trade chip and the market stays a one-man race. If Denver waives him, the likeliest outcome — per every signal out of Lithuania — is that he signs in Kaunas and the market still stays a one-man race, only with the Knicks now free to concentrate on Looney too.
Either way, the Lakers’ cleanest move is not waiting to find out. The front office has spent two weeks executing the overhaul it promised Doncic, and the backup center spot is the last box it has not checked.
Friday proved how fast this tier of the market moves. Los Angeles watched one target sign in the time it took to publish the list he was on. It should not need a second demonstration.
