MONDAY, 4:12pm: Kelly’s deal is now official, according to a tweet from the Lakers’ official account.
FRIDAY, 10:40pm: Mark Medina of Los Angeles Daily News tweets that the deal is for two years with no options.
9:37pm: The Lakers have reached an agreement with Ryan Kelly, tweets Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times. Terms of the deal are unknown, and Bresnahan guesses it’s a one or two year arrangement in a separate tweet. Kelly was a restricted agent, and the team was reportedly working on a deal aside from the $1MM qualifying offer extended to him at the beginning of free agency.
Kelly will join Wesley Johnson and Xavier Henry in returning to Los Angeles as probable reserves that saw heavy minutes for an injury-depleted Lakers squad last season. Kelly was selected by the Lakers with the 48th pick in the 2013 draft, and excelled in the D-League before getting the opportunity to play NBA minutes as a rotation piece, even starting 25 games.
The Octagon Sports client hoped to return to the Lakers, and believed the interest to be mutual. The 23-year-old averaged 8.0 PPG and 3.7 RPG with a slash line of .423/.338/.815 as a rookie stretch-four.