Kevon Looney is officially departing the Golden State Warriors after a decade, with the veteran center signing a two-year, $16 million contract with the New Orleans Pelicans as an unrestricted free agent.
It's a tough day for the Warriors given how much Looney has meant as a 3x NBA champion, but from a roster-building standpoint it goes to show just how much the franchise butched a significant opportunity at the mid-season trade deadline.
The Warriors should have traded Kevon Looney's expiring contract
Golden State made a big splash at the deadline when they traded for 6x All-Star Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat in a multi-team trade, sending out Andrew Wiggins, Dennis Schroder, Kyle Anderson and Lindy Waters III in the process.
That deal happened in time for the Warriors to explore other moves in the hours leading up to the deadline, but they ultimately stood pat and kept the remainder of their roster intact. Most notably, Golden State retained Looney and Gary Payton II as expiring contracts making just over $17 million combined.
Obviously the Butler trade worked wonders for the Warriors who completely changed their fortunes over the finals month of the season, moving from a 25-26 record to finish 48-34 and secure the seventh-seed in the Western Conference.
As impressive as that was, Golden State could have improved even more drastically had they been willing to move Looney and/or Payton for a significant upgrade at the deadline. While it may not have changed the outcome of the second-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves given Stephen Curry's injury, it could have at least improved their chances of stealing a game and allowing the 2x MVP to return.
Looney averaged 10 minutes for the Warriors in the playoffs and had little impact, with Steve Kerr consistently playing small with Draymond Green at the five. Payton played a little more at 16.4 minutes during the postseason, but he wasn't overly helpful in ranking second-last on the team in plus-minus.
Looney's offensive limitations had greatly reduced his value to Golden State over the past two years, making this free agency departure sad but also inevitable. Given this inevitability, it must be asked why the Warriors didn't try and turn he and/or Payton into something of value before the deadline?
It's now a blatant mistake. Period. The only way Golden State can reverse it is now executing a sign-and-trade involving Looney, otherwise they've just let him walk for nothing rather than using the asset at the deadline.
Payton remains on the market just over three hours into free agency, with a likelihood that he too will join Looney as a departure from the Warriors this offseason.