WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — Golden State Warriors first-round draft pick, Kevon Looney, was introduced yesterday at the team’s practice facility in downtown Oakland.
Warriors’ radio broadcaster Tim Roye and general manager Bob Myers opened at the podium, introduced Looney, and Roye emcee’d questions and answers, taking a few from Twitter as well as the audience of media members.
The 6’9″, 222-lb freshman out of the University of California, Los Angeles had his immediately family in attendance in the first row, accompanied by agent Todd Ramasar and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. Not only was the family beaming the whole time, but so was Kerr, ever the one to keep a moment in its perspective — it was certainly a memorable day for the Looneys to be welcomed as family to a franchise that had just won the NBA championship.
The days where the father of an NCAA tournament sensation might justifiably have qualms over his son being forced to enter his rookie season wearing the uniform of a franchise with a checkered past, seem over.
“Everybody wants to be a Golden State Warrior,” Looney told LetsGoWarriors. “It’s a fun team, they’re fun to watch, they play a fun style of basketball, and they win.
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“Everybody wants to be a winner. They’re just a great group of guys and they have the MVP. Who doesn’t want to play with the MVP?”
Looney is expected, like many of the Warriors currently on the roster, to morph between a “3”, “4”, and “5”. As Dieter Kurtenbach of KNBR writes:
Looney has a 7-foot-3 wingspan and is a highly effective offensive glass crasher — traits of an NBA power forward. But he also doesn’t have much of a low-post offensive game — preferring instead to face-up — and he knocked down 41.5 percent of his 3-pointers last year — traditionally the skills of a small forward.
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He’s between positions — a tweener — and to many NBA teams, that label is a scarlet letter.
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To the Warriors, it’s a badge of honor.
If Looney ever sees time on a Warriors practice floor, he’ll likely be going up against the likes of Draymond Green. Is that something he’s envisioned yet?
“I watched him in the Finals. He plays so hard. It’s always fun playing against a guy that’s real competitive, that brings the best out of you,” Looney told LetsGoWarriors.
Will Looney talk trash with Green?
“I think some. He’s a Midwest guy. I’m a Midwest guy. I don’t let people usually out-talk me,” laughed Looney.
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As Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group reported from “Draft headquarters” at the Warriors’ practice facility the day of the Draft, Looney was a fortunate, sensible pick for Golden State, even if there were health concerns:
Looney has hip issues and he’s a raw 19-year-old–but as GM Bob Myers repeatedly pointed out as his presser just now, the Warriors weren’t looking to play their first-round pick very much next season, anyway.
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Reminder: They won the championship 9 days ago. They have good players.
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And while the Warriors probably really circled Georgia State guard R.J. Hunter, who went 28th to Boston and probably was one guy who could’ve stepped right into the Warriors’ rotation… Looney fits their style.
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The Warriors love mid-sized, versatile, mobile forwards–Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes, James Michael McAdoo–and Looney fits right in there with a decent three-point shot and ability to run the floor, rebound, dribble, and defend multiple positions.
Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle:
“I actually feel good right now,” he said. “I had a hip injury when I first got to UCLA, and I played the whole season. I went through workouts with it. I can still play now.…
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“It was real frustrating, because a lot of things weren’t true. … All of these rumors started after the season. … To come this far and hear that this same hip injury is stopping me or scaring teams away, it was kind of frustrating for me.”
Wrote Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group:
“I was very honest about how we treated it,” (UCLA head coach Steve) Alford said. “He sat out for about two to three weeks in late summer, early fall. Once we came back, he never had any issues. He played hard. He was very durable. He played about as many, if not more minutes, than any freshman in the country. He proved himself that way.”
Assuming he does suit up — with No. 36 and not his college number 5, which is already being worn by Marreese Speights — the Warriors are ready to take Looney in. As Leung also wrote:
Looney held up a No. 36 Warriors jersey alongside his father and mother. At 19, he is the youngest player in Myers’ three seasons as general manager.
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“We have a very functional group of players and coaches to rear him, teach him how to improve, teach him how to practice, develop the right habits,” Myers said.
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How that development might materialize excites the Warriors, who Thursday made what Myers said was an “easy” decision to draft a 6-foot-9, 220-pound player who could shoot, rebound and block shots.
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“He can put it on the floor offensively,” said Warriors scout Larry Harris, who was familiar with Looney from residing in the Milwaukee area, where Looney is from.
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“He’s got to get stronger in the post. He’s got to get better at being able to defend strength because he is thin, but he’s long.
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“We need to work on his strength and his body to be able to score down on the block a little bit more consistently but yet not take away from his strength of facing the basket and being able to shoot it.”
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @flyght5_fanpage)
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