The Los Angeles Lakers have opened the 2026-27 NBA season with Arthur Kaluma, Chris Mañon and AK Okereke occupying their trio of two-way contract spots. But according to Marc Stein and Jake Fischer, Los Angeles was intrigued by the possibility of adding Pete Nance on a two-way deal when Nance was a free agent earlier this month.
“The 76ers and Lakers, league sources say, both registered two-way contract interest in Pete Nance after Milwaukee released the 26-year-old last weekend,“ Stein and Fischer
reported. ”But the Bucks, as The Stein Line reported last Sunday, believed they could get Nance to stay in Brewtown on a two-way with them and were proven correct. Nance is still a Buck.“
Since going undrafted in 2023, Nance — the younger brother of former Laker Larry Nance Jr. — has spent time with the Bucks, Sixers and Cleveland Cavaliers. As Milwaukee labored through a lost season last year, Nance received the most run of his brief career thus far. He played in a career-high 47 games, logged a career-high 737 minutes and averaged a career-high 5.4 points per game, headlined by a 23-point outing against the Houston Rockets and 11 other double-digit scoring nights.
Nance’s standout trait is seemingly his outside shooting, having drained 41.7% of his career triples (60-of-144). While he wouldn’t have presumably factored into the Lakers’ rotation, that floor-spacing as a legit 4 could’ve provided a nice duplicative element behind Sandro Mamukelashvili in times of rotational crisis. For now, though, he remains with the Bucks while the Lakers roll with Kaluma, Mañon and Okereke.
Among the three, only Mañon’s logged regular-season minutes (three) to this point, with two of the Lakers’ three wins being undecided until late in the fourth quarter. Most of their playing time will likely come with the South Bay Lakers in the G League, which begins its season Nov. 6 with the Tip-Off Tournament.
Both Kaluma and Mañon played for South Bay last season while Okereke is a rookie. In 35 regular-season appearances, Kaluma averaged 14.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists, and shot 54.5% from the floor (36.4% beyond the arc). Mañon made 33 appearances, averaging 10.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.0 steals.
You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.
