{"id":156446,"date":"2025-08-25T22:50:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T02:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=156446"},"modified":"2025-08-25T22:50:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T02:50:34","slug":"lakers-sign-kylor-kelley-training-camp-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/08\/25\/lakers-sign-kylor-kelley-training-camp-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Ink Defensive-Minded 7-Footer to Training Camp Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lakers have solidified the 21-man roster that will join them for September training camp. LA signed 27-year-old big man <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kelleky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kylor Kelley<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to a <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Trevor_Lane\/status\/1960145759061365083\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">training camp deal<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Monday. They bring in a familiar name and add some intrigue to who will occupy the open two-way spot.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Lakers Ink Defensive-Minded 7-Footer to Training Camp Deal<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Kelley\u2019s Brief NBA Stint Comes After G League Grind<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kelley recently enjoyed a brief cup of coffee in the NBA, but not before a four-year G League journey. The former Oregon State Center is a season removed from swatting a league-high 85 shots (2.9 per game), a mark that earned him All-Defensive Team honors. He played 32 games for the South Bay Lakers this season, <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/lakers\/news\/los-angeles-lakers-sign-center-kylor-kelley-082525\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">averaging<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 11.5 points (68% FG), 7.3 rebounds, 2.4 blocks and 1.5 assists.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_156454\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-156454\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-156454 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_24407192_168402037_lowres-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Oct 4, 2024; Palm Desert, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers center Kylor Kelley (50) defends against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the second half at Acrisure Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_24407192_168402037_lowres-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_24407192_168402037_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_24407192_168402037_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_24407192_168402037_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_24407192_168402037_lowres-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_24407192_168402037_lowres-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/USATSI_24407192_168402037_lowres-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-156454\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oct 4, 2024; Palm Desert, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers center Kylor Kelley (50) defends against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the second half at Acrisure Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amid his strong play, Kelley signed a <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SouthBayLakers\/status\/1883750647411122213\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">two-way contract with the Dallas Mavericks<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in January. In Kelley\u2019s first career start (Feb. 2 vs. Cleveland), he put up <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=J2m8Ih_eQXc\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12 points, 11 rebounds<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an assist and a block. After the Mavs waived Kelley in March, the New Orleans Pelicans picked him up in April. All told, Kelley\u2019s rookie year lasted 11 games (two starts), with averages of 3.1 points and 3.5 rebounds on 63% shooting from the field.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"et\" dir=\"ltr\">KYLOR KELLEY \ud83e\udd2f<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SBLakers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SBLakers<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5fsRSk3MBN\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/5fsRSk3MBN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; South Bay Lakers (@SouthBayLakers) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SouthBayLakers\/status\/1904721364889854316?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><b>More Competition for Young Lakers<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kelley will be the latest Laker to compete for the lone vacant two-way contract spot. He and <a  href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/25229710-lakers-sign-rj-davis-eric-dixon-arthur-kaluma-more-exhibit-10-contracts\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">other young Lakers<\/a> will hope to join <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/manonch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chris Ma\u00f1on<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kolokch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christian Koloko<\/span><\/a>, who the team <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/21\/lakers-roster-koloko-manon-two-way-signings\/\" target=\"_self\">signed weeks ago<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although Kelley may have an edge with his NBA experience and familiarity with South Bay, he will need to put in the work to <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.silverscreenandroll.com\/2024\/10\/18\/24273934\/lakers-grayson-murphy-kylor-kelly-jordan-goodwin-exhibit-10-g-league-south-bay-preseason\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">avoid the same fate as last season<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Stephen Lew-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lakers have solidified the 21-man roster that will join them for September training camp. LA signed 27-year-old big man Kylor Kelley to a training camp deal Monday. They bring in a familiar name and add some intrigue to who will occupy the open two-way spot. Lakers Ink Defensive-Minded 7-Footer to Training Camp Deal Kelley\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":156452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,62,3],"tags":[49738,49958],"class_list":["post-156446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","category-news","tag-exhibit-10-deal","tag-kylor-kelley"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156446"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156467,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156446\/revisions\/156467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}