For the first time in his NBA career former UCLA Bruin center Kevon Looney will be switching teams. ESPN’s Shams Charnia reports that Looney signed a new two-year deal with the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday to end his 10-year tenure with the Golden State Warriors.
Looney joins the Pelicans’ frontcourt on a two-year, $16 million deal. Looney was selected by the Warriors with the 30th overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft. He shaped a decade of impactful basketball with the Warriors. Looney was a rookie during the Warriors’ 73-win season and sat on the bench overseeing one of the most iconic NBA Finals ever, marked by the Cavaliers’ 3-1 comeback under LeBron James.
Looney then won back-to-back championships once Kevin Durant came to town. By 2019, Looney was an integral part of the Warriors’ rotation, even playing through a fracture of the first costal cartilage on the right side of his rib cage that he suffered in the NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors.
Looney then waded through a few down years for the Warriors before coming back as one of the most important players in the Warriors’ 2022 title run, with Looney averaging 10.6 rebounds in the Western Conference Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.
Over his 10 seasons with Golden State, Looney’s numbers may not jump off the page, averaging 5.0 points and 5.7 rebounds over 599 games but he rose to the occasion in his limited role time again and again for the Warriors.
Looney is a great what-if story as well, averaging 11.6 points per game and 9.2 rebounds per game as a freshman with UCLA while shooting 41.5% from three before lower body injuries zapped Looney’s mobility.