A Los Angeles Lakers Trade for Karlo Matković Starts With Kevon Looney

The Los Angeles Lakers should trade for Karlo Matković, and the salary that makes it legal is Kevon Looney’s $2,449,421 — not Jaden Hardy’s $6,000,000. Matković earns $2,296,271, and sending him out lets the New Orleans Pelicans absorb $4,842,542 in return. Hardy sits $1,157,458 above that line.

Zach Buckley of Bleacher Report grouped three names as the Lakers’ best backup-center options: Goga Bitadze of the Orlando Magic, Jericho Sims of the Milwaukee Bucks and Matković, “a 6’10″ combo big with a career 39.8 percent splash rate from three.” He attached no salary or package to any of them. The salaries separate them.

Matković’s $2,296,271 Sets the Ceiling, and the Ceiling Is the Problem

New Orleans carries $196,558,353 against a first apron of $209,015,000, which puts it in the expanded salary-matching brackets rather than the dollar-for-dollar rule binding teams at or above the apron. For outgoing salary that small the bracket is 200 percent plus $250,000, per Over The Apron. On Matković that is $4,842,542. The Pelicans are hard-capped at the first apron for using the expanded traded player exception on AJ Johnson, per Hoops Rumors, so there is no cap-room route around it.

Hardy’s $6,000,000 does not fit, and the repair is clumsy. New Orleans may aggregate — that restriction binds only teams over the second apron — so adding Trendon Watford’s $2,449,421 lifts the ceiling to $9,741,384 and clears Hardy with $3,741,384 unused.

But Watford’s figure is italicised on Basketball-Reference, meaning not fully guaranteed, and Hoops Rumors puts the guarantee at $250,000. He signed a one-year minimum in free agency and cannot be traded until Dec. 15 either. Asking New Orleans to add a body to a deal nobody reported it wanting is how trade ideas die.

Kevon Looney Is the Salary the Lakers Already Want Moved

Looney has played five games at 5.8 minutes, 1.6 points and 1.6 rebounds. That is the hole behind the Lakers’ standing need for a center after Milwaukee guaranteed Kel’el Ware’s 2027-28 salary, and his contract is the number that makes a Matković trade work with nothing attached. New Orleans absorbs $2,449,421 against its $4,842,542 ceiling with $2,393,121 to spare, and the Lakers, sending out $2,449,421 from below the apron, may take back $5,148,842.

Looney is on the same Dec. 15 list as Watford, so neither version happens sooner — the same wait that holds up a Day’Ron Sharpe trade until Dec. 15. What changes is the cost.

Jaden Hardy Is Worth More Than a $2.3 Million Big

Hardy’s $6,000,000 and Jake LaRavia’s $6,000,000 are the only mid-size salaries the Lakers can move today, and $6,000,000 going out buys $12,250,000 coming back — a different class of player. This site has argued that Chicago has no reason to sell Jalen Smith for Hardy; spending him on a minimum-salary big burns the larger tool to buy the smaller player.

Matković’s contract argues for patience too. His $2,296,271 is a team option New Orleans exercised in June, fully guaranteed, with no year after it; Hoops Rumors has him extension-eligible and bound for restricted free agency next summer. The acquiring team controls what comes next rather than inheriting an obligation.

Two things are not knowable. Whether New Orleans would sell is the Pelicans’ business, and the case against sits on their own stat sheet: Matković has started four of seven games and is averaging 18.6 minutes. No outlet has reported a price in draft capital for him, so what Buckley’s idea costs in picks is unknown.

The shape of the deal is knowable, and it rules out the package everyone reaches for. The Lakers’ backup-center problem is worth about $2.4 million of outgoing salary — what Looney makes, and what New Orleans can take. Spending $6,000,000 to fix a $2,296,271 problem pays twice.

Contract figures and payroll totals via Basketball-Reference; cap, apron and salary-matching figures via Hoops Rumors and Over The Apron. All figures as of November 6, 2026.