Pelicans To Decline 2026/27 Team Option On Kevon Looney

The news doesn’t come as a surprise. After spending his first 10 years with the Warriors, Looney signed a two-year, $16MM contract with New Orleans, but he rarely played in his first season as a Pelican, averaging 2.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists in just 21 games (14.7 minutes per contest).

Looney rebounded well on a per-minute basis and that was true of his assists as well. He’s long been a strong screen-setter and offensive rebounder. But he’s never been much of a scoring threat, and that was even more true in his first stint outside of Golden State.

Looney has been widely lauded for his professionalism over the years and is only 30 years old, so he could draw interest from teams searching for veteran frontcourt depth. He was the final first-round pick (30th overall) in the 2015 draft and won three titles with Golden State.

The Pelicans exercised their $2.3MM option on big man Karlo Matkovic on Thursday. Looney and Matkovic were the only team or player options in New Orleans this summer.