The Warriors were unsure of Kevon Looney’s future in Golden State, but they decided to re-sign him after a breakout year.
Before the 2017-18 season begun, the Warriors declined an option on Kevon Looney‘s contract that would’ve kept him in Golden State through the 2018-19 season.
The front office decided that they wanted to see Looney take a step forward before they committed to keeping him for another year.
Coming into this season, Looney had only played in 58 career games with most of his minutes coming in garbage time.
Looney definitely took a step forward as a player last year averaging career highs in points (4), rebounds (3.3), blocks (0.8), and minutes per game (13.8) while shooting a career-best 58% from the field.
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Looney’s playoff performance ensured that Golden State would try to re-sign him this offseason.
His defense was spectacular in the playoffs, and he did a fantastic job of staying in front of the Rockets’ isolation scorers after they mercilessly attacked him in pick-and-rolls during the Western Conference Finals.
Looney is still just 22 years old despite being drafted all the way back in 2015, and this season showed he still has plenty of potential, especially on the defensive end.
The Warriors may have thought they made a mistake declining the option on Kevon Looney’s contract when he started to play so well in the postseason.
However, the option on Looney’s contract would’ve paid him $2.23 million in the 2018-19 season, whereas Golden State was able to re-sign him to a one-year, $1.57 million contract as an unrestricted free agent.
The Warriors took a risk declining Looney’s option, but the situation worked out better than they ever hoped as they ended up getting a more promising player on a lower price.
Hopefully Looney continues to progress as an NBA player and can become one of the centers of the future in Golden State.
Check out our grades of the Warriors’ other offseason moves: