The 21-man roster is released! The Lakers sign the 2-meter 13G league block king: Is the lineup transformation completed?

On August 26, the Lakers officially announced that they had signed a training camp contract with center Keller Kelly. Kelly is 28 years old and 2.13 meters tall. He was a 2020 draft pick. He played for the Mavericks and the Pelicans for a short time last season. In addition, he also competed for the Lakers' G League team, Nanwan Lakers. Kelly was the top scorer in the G League last season, and the ability to protect the basket in the G League was impressive.

Kelly signed a two-way contract with the Mavericks last season. He played 8 games in the NBA, averaging 3.0 points, 2.6 rebounds, 0.3 assists and 0.3 blocks per game. After being cut by the Mavericks, he signed a 10-day short-term contract with the Pelicans. He played in 3 games and averaged 3.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.3 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game. Kelly played 11 games in the NBA last season, averaging 11.4 minutes per game, scoring 3.1 points, 3.5 rebounds and 0.3 blocks.

Kelly played 32 G League games for the Nanwan Lakers last season, averaging 11.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 2.4 blocks per game, of which 68.2% of the shooting percentage set a career high in the G League, ranking first in the G League per game, and was crowned the blocking champion of the season. Kelly was also selected for the G League's best defensive team in the 2024-25 season.

Kelly played a total of 108 games in the G League. He has played for the Austin Spurs and the Maine Celtics. He averaged 8.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 2.0 blocks per game in his G League career.

Kelly was a 2020 NBA draft pick and played in Oregon State, and averaged 11.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game in his last season of college. He once went to overseas leagues, went to the English League, the Danish League, and the Canadian League, and later returned to the United States to play.

Kelly got a training camp contract, and it would be very difficult for him to get an NBA contract. The Lakers currently have 14 players with regular NBA contracts and 2 players have two-way contracts (Korlock and Chris Mannon). In addition, the Lakers have previously signed training camp contracts with four players, namely Eric Dixon, RJ Davis, Arthur Karuma and Matthew Leonis. Now that the Lakers have signed Kelly, the training camp roster has reached 21, reaching the maximum number of players for a team to enter the training camp in the new season.

Theoretically, Kelly still has a chance to hit the Lakers' two-way contract, but he faces considerable competition. Objectively speaking, Kelly's greater possibility is to play for the Lakers' G League affiliate team, the South Bay Lakers, next season.