Looney’s latest, greatest evolution as 10th Warriors season nears

Looney’s latest, greatest evolution as 10th Warriors season nears originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Records are meant to be broken, and streaks always have an end point. Some have deeper meaning than a number. Some have a connection to the soul, reminding oneself of everything it took to make it and to never let anything break them.

Kevon Looney’s streak of 290 consecutive games played served as a daily example of pushing through the many chances the Warriors center could have decided to stop, all the chances he had to take a day off. The surgeries. The chunks that a ruthless injury bug kept taking out of him. The only NBA franchise he has ever known drafting his replacement, to then become one of the most reliable players on multiple championship teams but receive contracts that still showed some doubts.

All those factors are what made March 7, 2024, such a crushing blow. Not only for Looney, but the man who decided not to play him a single second in a three-point loss to the Chicago Bulls. Warriors coach Steve Kerr played with all-time greats and has coached legends of the game as well. Despite the numerous Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famers he has shared the court with, Looney might be the one Kerr respects most, which could have made April’s exit interview between player and coach their toughest one yet after such a disappointing season for all parties.

Instead, it was a time of reassurance when Looney was facing perhaps his biggest time of uncertainty after already navigating so many roadblocks in his Warriors career.

“He’s somebody that has always been in my corner,” Looney said in an exclusive interview with NBC Sports Bay Area. “He kind of expressed to me, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m always going to fight for you. I want you to be part of this team while I’m here.’

“He just expressed to me what I need to work on, what he expects of me. He always talked to me with the intention that I would be back, so he just expressed what I need to do to keep getting better and to keep helping our team.”

But Looney’s return to the Warriors for the 2024-25 NBA season was not close to guaranteed. The night before his streak came to an end, Looney only played six minutes – all in the first quarter – of a 35-point blowout win against the Milwaukee Bucks and spent 19 straight games coming off the bench. Rookie second-round draft pick Trayce Jackson-Davis, who plays the same position as Looney, was inserted into the starting lineup for the final three weeks of the 2023-24 regular season.

The biggest component, however, was Looney’s contract.

Owner Joe Lacob was forthright in wanting to cut costs this offseason, and Looney appeared to be a possible casualty. His dwindling role showed the odds weren’t in his favor, and only $3 million of his $8 million contract for the 2024-25 season was guaranteed. Looney admits there was “a little doubt” regarding his future with Golden State, yet when the June 24 deadline for his contract to be fully guaranteed arrived, top decision makers paid up and kept him in a Warriors jersey.

Kerr doesn’t sign contracts but made his desires known to the front office, and sources called Looney’s return “huge for the direction the Warriors are trying to go in leading the young guys and keeping the veterans on track” as their “moral compass.”

“Until you actually get that guarantee, you never really know,” Looney said. “I’ve been in that situation before where it didn’t go the way I wanted it. I was pretty optimistic about still being here; I’m glad I’m still here. It’s still a long year, you never know. In the NBA, things can change really, really fast.

“I’m just going to take care of what I can take care of, which is my body, the way I perform and the way I carry myself.”

And that’s exactly the way the 28-year-old, who is now the third-longest tenured Warrior behind only Steph Curry and Draymond Green, has attacked another crucial summer for himself and the team alike.

Looney’s main objective once the season concluded, a campaign where the Warriors failed to make the NBA playoffs and his minutes per game dropped to its lowest in a full season since 2017-18, was to expand his game and again restructure his body. That meant losing weight to play faster, be more versatile on the wing, guard the perimeter and yes, start shooting 3-pointers.

He already has reached his goal of losing 10 to 15 pounds, and the 6-foot-9 center looks noticeably lean. “Loon is in phenomenal shape,” one source said.

As one of the NBA’s best rebounders the past few seasons, Looney played at 260 pounds and expects to play between 245 and 250 pounds this season, where he already is days away from training camp. Looney has continued his secret weapon of JOGA – a form of yoga for athletes that focuses on posture, breathing, flexibility and mobility – and has worked with a nutritionist. It’s not so much that he has changed his training, but the way he trains: What he eats and Looney’s calorie intake has been examined down to a science these past five months.

“I feel lighter, I feel a lot lighter,” Looney says. “I feel lighter on my feet, I feel like I can move better. I can move the way I want to for longer and I feel like I got a little more stamina. I’ll still be in the post and I got to defend those big bodies, so maintain that strength and improve weaknesses that I wanted.

“I’m at a good balance right now. For me, it’s always been finding that balance where I can be able to be mobile and still be strong enough to hold my own on the block.”

On the court, Looney continued to be a mainstay at the now-notorious Rico Hines Runs at UCLA. This year Looney couldn’t help but notice he’s becoming more and more the vet and being sought out for advice regularly, passing down the same knowledge that Green and Andre Iguodala gave to him during the beginning of his career. The sessions also served as a way for Looney to be aggressive shooting the ball in a game-like setting, something that Hines, now a Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach, and the entire Warriors coaching staff have empowered him to do whenever he gets the chance.

If there’s an open shot and Looney is in rhythm, from the mid-range or behind the 3-point line, his first option no longer can be scanning the court for someone else. While he’s eyeing a 35- to 36-percent shooting percentage from deep, with the ultimate target one day being 40 percent, mindset is more important than numbers.

Though Looney doesn’t have a famed shooting coach like Chris Brickley or Drew Hanlen, he has worked with player development coach Jerred Cook, whom he met through Hines, the past few offseasons. When Looney shared his plan of wanting to shoot threes, Cook lit up, telling him, “I’ve been waiting for you to say that!” Then came the constant reminders that it’s OK to be a little selfish and to search for your own shot, knowing Looney naturally will find others, too.

Footwork and building from the ground up is part of the process. Confidence is the most vital ingredient.

“I’ve been watching a lot of film where I might get shots in the game and trying to shoot in those areas,” Looney explained. “And then when I go out there and play, don’t get into the habit of just playing the way I’m used to playing, but actually going out there and shooting the shots that I want to shoot in the game and shooting them at game speed.”

The weight loss, hard work and commitment to becoming a shooting threat still doesn’t guarantee anything for someone who has played every role for Kerr. Starter, bench player, leader and the perfect glue guy no matter how many minutes he plays – Looney truly has done it all for the Warriors.

Two players, Curry and Green, are the only Warriors assured spots in the starting five. The only role Looney is interested in is playing and being a part of the Warriors getting back to contending for a title. Being introduced in the starting lineup or not won’t change his approach. Preparation is what can give him the trust in knowing Kerr will make the correct decision for him and the team after spending nine years together, which brings Looney to a new milestone that garners an immediate smile: Making it to a decade playing in the NBA for one franchise.

Curry and Green also are the two active players who have spent the longest time on one team in the NBA. As Curry enters his 16th season as a Warrior, Green is going on 13 seasons for Golden State. Giannis Antetokounmpo will be starting his 12th year for the Milwaukee Bucks, and then it’s Looney, along with Nikola Jokic, Devin Booker, Karl-Anthony Towns and Myles Turner, who are about to hit the 10-year mark for their respective teams.

“I’ve had a crazy career arc,” Looney said. “I know the way my career started – I had faith, but I don’t know if anybody else had faith that I could be able to play this long, especially with the injuries that I dealt with. There wasn’t somebody that I could look at and lean on and just give me confidence. I kind of just had to have faith in myself.

“For me to able to say that I played 10 years, and not just 10 years bouncing around but 10 years with one team, be able to make contributions on winning basketball, be part of a team that won multiple championships and have an impact on a community like this and a franchise this storied has been great for me. … This basketball thing isn’t guaranteed. You can be in the league today and gone tomorrow.”

Drafted at 19 years old, Looney has turned from a teenager to a man with the Warriors. The life lessons that have grown alongside him are abundant. Adversity is his greatest strength, holding respect and discipline near and dear to his heart.

Adapt, evolve and then adapt and evolve some more. Looney’s never-ending metamorphosis has him ready to flap his wings and show Warriors fans something new going into Year 10 playing for Dub Nation, and he doesn’t intend on stopping anytime soon.

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