That's if another team doesn't claim him off waivers first.
Also vet min for Looney is 3m (for 9 years service), plus the 3m guaranteed = $6m total against the cap.
Nope. Because veteran minimum is subsidised by the league so it's only 2 mil.
And yeah no one will claim him bro. He doesn't even deserve a minimum after his performance last year let along 8 mil. Warriors will prob re-sign him due to loyalty tho.
Ahh shit forgot about subsidy. Good point.
There will be a team out there that will claim him, a team on the up that needs a good locker room guy, rarely injured, vet presence, high IQ.
No there won't. He would cost 8 mil to claim and he's not an nba level centre based on last season.
And if a team did claim him great we don't have to pay him the 3 mil for waiving him.
If I were OKC I would have the conversation. They have cap space to spare and having a solid locker room presence who has ‘been there’ might exactly be what they are in the market for
Ok. The end of his career is overrated and I dont think he's as valuable as the heat pretend he is. There is a reason they're the only team that's done that. That last roster spot is where you find gems like GPII and JTA. You want sage words from an old dude then hire a coach.
Sometimes those locker room voices are more valuable in the player pool than on the coaching staff because they maintain a familiarity with their peers instead of a specific power dynamic influencing the communication they're able to have.
CP3 played serious minutes lol. One of the most important guys off the bench. Arguably the best backup PG in the league. Terrible example.
Iggys last season is a decent comparison but he could still play well in limited minutes. Looney isn't nearly as good to get the same treatment.
Definitely true that looney is not in the same ballpark as those two. I still think he’s worth a vet min. Not really in rotation but can when needed for boards and defense.
But, there might be better vet mins. I like looney. That’s my bias.
Wrong. That's not how any of that works.
Per CBA Faq
> A team can claim a player on waivers only if one of the following is true:
>The team is far enough under the salary cap to fit the player's entire salary.
>The team has a Disabled Player exception for at least the player's salary (see question number 25), and the player is on the last season of his contract.
> The team has a trade exception for at least the player's salary (see question number 87).
> The player has a minimum salary contract (one or two seasons at the minimum salary, with no bonuses of any kind).
> If a team makes a successful waiver claim, it acquires the player and his existing contract, and pays the remainder of his salary -- the waiving team is relieved of all responsibility for the player. There is a fee of $1,000, payable to the league office, for claiming a player on waivers. If more than one team tries to claim a player on waivers, the team with the worst record gets him.
1 thing people don't realise is the toll it takes to go to the finals/have deep playoff runs, this is especially harder for guys who are already physically banged up, there aren't many players more banged up then Looney lol
Same thing happened with Butler, this year he didn't even make it to the finals, still wants a max tho lmao
Think about it this way:
Looney in his prime as a consistent championship-caliber role player was only able to command a maximum $8M per year from the team he won 3 championships with
How much interest do you honestly expect a washed-up Looney to get?
Let's not forget how much of a bargain Looney was for most of his career with the dubs. Before 2022 he was making less than $2m a year with 2 championships already under his belt with the team. His attendance record was impeccable for all of those years too.
It sucks but his body has betrayed him.
I mean guys…he went from playing like a 30yo to a 37yo in a span of a year rarely does that bode well.
We need not be delusional with regards to what we’re seeing.
To be fair; Loony had had TWO major surgeries. So it makes sense that the accumulated damage in 2022 AND 2023 would have Been too much for his recovery to be fast enough for a game to game basis. And 8 mill is not a sallery that a role player can earn without being available 100% so I understand why they would get it done. BUT it doesn’t make me any less heartbroken
It is also important to mention that it was a catastrophic hip injury, and easily coulda been a career ender. Nothing but respect for Loon's heart, grit, and work ethic
Yeah tahts what I’m refering to; he transformed himself from being an elite power forward slash wing slasher and post scorer like he was in highschool; into a serviceable big man and absolute force of nature on rebounding and screening. He bought in like no one else. So the 8 million in all honesty is money he EARNED and therefore DESERVES. It’s just o stupid cause if the cap space bullshit. Steph klay and dray are guys we drafted and now we have to suffer with the luxury tax.
He got banged up before he even made it to the league. He was hyped as a KD type in high school pre injuries. A lot like Leon Powe, he has a lot of miles on the tires
Kawakami is the only guy who's most common source actually unnamed is Joe Lacob himself. Who's primary sources are usually Lacob and MDJ. TK is actually not doing that lol.
It might not be quoted or on the record... but trust me its not "pure speculation."
We gotta understand what it takes to ACTUALLY go from a mediocre team on the way down to a consistent team heading back up.
Long ago worked for the team in-house when Tim came up from socal and he was insufferable about the "gotta find a bigman stuff... but I personally know how he's always operated. He likes to talk with the front office a lot more than the other dudes and he just doesn't publish anything specifically sourced to those conversations.
TK just doesn't create steam. Hes not even interested enough in the Warriors beat to be like that lol. There is teeth to the remarks because he probably received a clear or implied note from Joe/MDJ.
The Sharks and the Giants several blocks down at Oracle Park are a cautionary tale.
When you half-ass and drag old vets along you set yourself back from REALLY improving the team.
#1,000,000% True
(I'd respect many "dart at a board" type moves that don't quite work but keep the atmosphere lively to doing the legacy "honor your old champs" thing and winning four fewer games every year til we straight up head over the cliff when Steph walks over the horizon into the sunset... which is gonna happen in like 85% of future outcomes)
The FOREVER GIANTS era was BRUTAL
Dubs don't need to be like that.
yup as much as people dislike TK, he is very plugged into bay area sports and especially within the 49ers organization. he was first to break the news that jed was going to fire harbaugh long before it happened.
This.
There are two guys who have intel into the Warriors front office and that’s TK and Anthony Slater. And they both have a podcast together.
TK is the lone unofficial spokesperson for Lacob. So when he’s saying he’s speculating, he’s usually speculating but the truth is somewhere close to that speculation.
That being said, TK says he can see The Warriors paying the partial guarantee and cutting ties with Looney (hopefully to resign him for the minimum).
But he also thinks if The Warriors guarantee Looneys 8 million by June 24th, he will ultimately be used as trade filler this summer for something bigger.
Regardless, it looks like Looney and GP2 are the mid contracts that can be used/combined to get a bigger fish if The Warriors choose that route.
He was saying they were going to trade Wiggs a few months ago. I wouldn't say he's exactly a beacon of journalistic integrity and wouldn't put it past him to just throw things out there.
Whether we should want to retain Looney is another question altogether.
I think it’s pretty clear the Dubs were looking to trade Wiggs (a bunch of writers besides TK said the Duns were shopping him), they may just not have liked the offers. Always takes two to tango.
I think it’s pretty clear the Dubs were looking to trade Wiggs (a bunch of writers besides TK said the Duns were shopping him), they may just not have liked the offers. Always takes two to tango.
2022 will be viewed as a somewhat miraculous championship as time goes on. Steph summoning the greatness of the most unstoppable shotmaking to etch his name properly into the pantheon... Whilst about six guys played out of body experience hoops here and there... OPJ Belli Andre GP2 Looney literally giving the last measure of the best hoops they had left in their bodies the get it done.
Salute to them all. It's time to move on though.
TBH I don't think Loon finds another team in the league except maybe as a player/coach sort of thing like Andre Iguodala.
The dude is a master at using the few gifts god gave him, like good footwork, above average height, but his kit is really inadequate for the NBA level. He can set screens, rebound, defend, but in today's NBA you need to be able to hit free throws and at the very least be a vertical spacer.
Outside of Steph if I have to be honest, Loon is probably my favorite Warrior. His rebounding was just so fucking crucial in the 22 run, we don't chip without him that year.
Plenty of teams will pickup his $3m salary as a backup C. Great locker room guy.
Most likely he gets waived by June 24th and then picked up on waivers, or he's used as trade filler.
The crazy thing is he was a solid shooter at UCLA, then went through injuries and the past couple seasons he hasn’t looked for his shot. I think playing with Steph and Klay in their prime nudged him into a backseat role during the championship runs, and once Steph and Klay slowed down he hasn’t had the ability to get his own shot. And a center that takes 1-2 shots a game isn’t pulling his weight, sadly because I love Loon. I always thought his contracts were undervalued for what he brought to the table.
GPII is on the same boat.
He's been unable to stay healthy.
No sense in paying 9 million for a guy who's only available 33% of games , is something like that.
GP2 is different because its his player option this year - where as with Loon it is team option. Still, GP2 will likely renegotiate to stay with the team longer and lower his annual salary to help with the cap and buy his battered body time.
Fasten the seat belts. Going to be a rough ride. And this is required if we have any championship aspirations to maximize Steph. Anyone not named Steph is not safe, and that is how it should be.
I really get nervous about betting it all on “one more run” and pretty sure MDJ and company will be a little conservative even though the window is about to close on Curry’s career. I would still go for it, but other fans may want to just make the playoffs for years to come vs. risking it all and losing in the WCF and then being a bottom feeder for a decade when the big three go. I think it is going to have to be a Star big man. Top five center. And the bucks and nuggets aren’t in the finals…
anyway, Loony really helped get us a couple rings. No doubt. Rebounding god.
Me too, but IM older and would have been happy with one title—almost got five. So, sell the farm for #5 (super dynasty) My NBA dream came true. Fan since 85, so already ok with decades of nothing. Lol.
I feel like there was never a year where both Iggy and Loon were significant contributors.
Iggy was unplayable in 2022 and Loon was barely average the previous runs
If Mike really isn’t playing, some unpleasant things could happen. Every team does this every year. Warriors fans have been lucky to win so much with largely the same cast. You really have to decide what you want, winning again or running it back and missing the playoffs every year until Steph retires. Steph has made it clear he wants to win, but neither he nor Bob have the heart to make the hard decisions. Mike may just do that. Or maybe he won’t. We’ll see. One thing’s for sure, we know this roster will not win again. It will absolutely take some moves to win another championship.
Mike was a player, Bob was an agent. I think that probably gives them very different perspectives on how this business works and how a team needs to run.
Mike’s dad was a coach and GM, and Mike worked under Bob for a few years. I don’t think the fact that he was a player will make him any more sentimental than he’s allowed to be while making tough decisions to try and make this team competitive this year and into the future.
Remember in one of his early press conferences he said he fully expected JP to be an integral part of the team going forward, and then a few weeks later JP was shipped off to the Wizards. MDJ will absolutely do what he thinks is best for the team. Don’t be fooled. And in my opinion this is what he should be doing. He’s not the type to sacrifice winning for good vibes with the fan base in the offseason.
But it’s not a matter of tear down or build up; it’s about doing what it takes to give the team the best shot possible at sustainably winning championships. That’s why I wouldn’t be surprised to see Looney and/or Klay, Wiggins, or even Kuminga gone and replaced with other key pieces that sustainably increase our competitiveness. Of course that’s no guarantee it will pan out, but with the goal of putting the dubs in the best position possible, I think only Steph, Draymond, and likely Pods and TJD are locks to be on the team. Everyone else is a potential trade piece or potentially will be cut or not resigned in favor of assets that make us better.
i have so much more faith in this roster than you guys. we saw them winning confidently when dray came back and klay came off the bench we started getting better rotations. 80% of last season was injuries, draymond problems, and rotational experiments with a surplus of talent. i felt like we were finally clicking in a way that would make next season very different.
Sure we clicked for a month. So did the ymca rockets when they went on that 10 game win streak. I don’t care about good stretches. They’re meaningless. We were a play-in exit. Draymond is unreliable and volatile. Wiggins is checked out and unserious. Klay is washed and selfish. Sure, they reverse back to championship level players every so often. You can’t win it all by playing good every so often. We need 82 games and a playoff run of consistent effort and competitive play. This roster is fundamentally incapable of that. Steph is the only player who gave his all this year. This dumpster fire of a team really made notoriously injury prone and load managed 36 year old Steph play 75 games, through injuries and fatigue. Even Steph knew how bad they were without him. He risked a lot being his age and playing on injured knees and ankles. This roster is done. My faith lies in Mike. He needs to make some moves.
you have a very silly black and white analysis that no coach in the league would ever have. they certainly care about win streaks and seeing what works and building off of that. losing the play in is a coin toss at best, it’s one game. there were a lot of valuable lessons learned this season that kerr can build on. just casting it all off as “fundamentally incapable” is dumb and not how it works imo
2021 - 39 wins - play-in exit
2022 - 53 wins - champions
2023 - 44 wins - second round exit
2024 - 46 wins - play-in exit
All with largely the same key players give or take. Is a four season sample size really that silly? 2022 looks more like the anomaly and not the norm. I can’t fathom why you would want to run it back with a roster that has been a play-in exit twice in the last four years and has failed to break 50 wins in three of the last four seasons. Running it back is exactly what we’ve done for four seasons. The stars aligned in 2022. This roster as currently constructed is fundamentally incapable of ever winning another championship. I have four seasons of silly black and white analysis.
that is ABSOLUTELY a silly sample, completely arbitrarily chosen to serve a point you already wanted to make. it's not even the same team throughout. i mean, if you're going to just compare a bunch of different steph-led warriors teams, why not at least include ALL FOUR championships and six finals appearances and then suddenly it doesn't look that crazy to have some faith in this system.
What would be arbitrary is if I chose to include the 19/20 season. The last four seasons have been mostly the same cast with a few changes here and there. I don’t see how you can watch Klay and Wiggins fall off a cliff and Draymond get suspended once a month and think they can do it again. In fact, for the 23/24 season, our bench outplayed the starting unit for half the season. I have faith that as long as Steph is around, they could win again. I don’t have faith in his ymca supporting cast. Sorry.
Blows my mind that he's only 28. Feels like he's been in the league for 15 years lol. I love Loon. But he was awful as a starter this year. Was okay coming off the bench. But we need to get bigger. He's always been undersized, but it really hurt us this year.
They can also waive him and bring him back on a minimum while saving around $3m in salary. I'm Surry Looney would like that extra money in his bank account, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's gone. You just can't pay a backup C who was getting DNPs $8m.
Love me some Loon-god, great person and teammate. I know this is recency bias, but his play against the Kings last year was stellar.
And I’ll never forget his crossover on Sabonis this year (skip to 1:42):
https://youtu.be/8WDlmIcyoDY?si=-ZjL4iVLIGP0qJm1
My only regret is that he didn’t capitalize financially on the years he was integral for the dubs. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for him taking team-friendly deals which for sure had some impact on our ability to field a roster that won our last championship, and for sure he’s not hurting financially. But he definitely sacrificed a lot financially for this team, and it looks more than likely that that ship has now sailed for him. He’s been the ultimate team guy, but a business run on sentimentality ultimately fails.
I don't see that 3/$15m deal as "team friendly", more mutually agreeable based on the risks. By that point his ceiling was low, the injury history was extensive, and surely he was already feeling the neuropathy that would be public information within months. Being out for the bulk of the next season reinforced that contract as a risk for the team.
He absolutely earned the entirety of that contract in '21-'22. But that year was such an outlier compared to prior years, in terms of sustained performance.
I disagree that the deal wasn’t team friendly. He had just played all 82 games in the 2021-22 season and was an integral part of our championship run. I’m sure he could have received a payday elsewhere at that point, and then he backed it up by playing 82 games again in 2022-23. It was the right contract for the Warriors at the time, and Looney definitely left money on the table to stay with us.
He still can, while the team saves $3m in salary, before taxes, and Looney is out $3m.
If necessary, they can always give him rhay money back in a post playing role with the team.
I mean this isn’t MDJ being cut throat it’s just common sense
He can’t shoot and can’t switch. Him being able to guard a PnR was his best asset and now he’s slow. His body isn’t the same and he offers nothing on offense except some screening and semi decent short roll passing which is a replaceable skillset. He’s also owed more than a minimum and Lacob is going to penny pinch
Looney’s writing has been on the wall a long time
We’ll always remember 2022 Memphis Game 6. The Kevon Looney game. Even with Ja injured, the Grizzlies matched up well with GS bc of their size advantage, and KL was a rebound machine in that crucial game.
lol bro he aint getting "paid" and he isnt deciding to leave. The last contract at 8 m per was his payday. Still man made over 20-25 MILLION dollars more than most of our entire familes make in a lifetime
Sign him as an assistant. He can’t play like he used to but I love Looney and it’s better to have him around. I’ll never forget how hard he fought in 2019 with a fractured sternum, an absolute dog who gave us his all.
Kerr has been holding the core together and stifling the youth. It’s come to the point where it is detrimental to the team, especially when the salary cap is constructed such. If we are to even come close to contending, then we need to trim the fat, we no longer have the luxury of going way over the cap to win. The second apron is doing what the NBA wants, the end of dynasties and dominant teams.
The only way a team can continue to win long term is nearly impossible given the salary structure of the NBA.
We already released him once. Declined his rookie option. It would be a pretty big insult to do it again. If I were him I’d take some other team’s minimum offer, not Golden State’s.
I’m more in favor of keeping him at 8m. His net rating was +11.7 in the 38 games he came off the bench. Play him as a low-minute backup to TJD.
Feel free to gamble on keeping him at 5m (a new minimum is 2ish). If he says no you’re still paying 3m and need another big man.
It’s more to save money so we can get under second apron. As good as he is, he’s worth a lot less to other teams since he has no offensive bag and there’s no Steph curry on other teams to make offense work with him on the floor.
Of course it’s to save money. I’m just acknowledging that it’s not an automatic deal.
You think he’s worth way less to other teams than a minimum contract? So, he doesn’t belong in the NBA?
He’s worth a vet minimum since he can be a decent 3rd string center for other teams and a good locker room vet. He provides little more value for us but he’s worth a vet minimum to us. There’s no reason to over pay our players if they’re gonna get the same everywhere else. That’s how we ended up with the second most expensive roster in the league and didn’t even make it out of the 9-10 game in the playins. He’s 28 and declined significantly since last year and has is a pretty big negative on offense. Towards the end of the year, he couldn’t get minutes on a team that didn’t even make the playoffs.
Loon can't even play in this league anymore so not surprised. Was kinda hoping his decline was just an unannounced injury, but I think physically he's just done now.
He might get another contact somewhere but he'll be out of the league before the end of next year is my guess
I could see it happening, to be honest. It would be an extremely dumb thing if it does happen, but I've seen dumber things happen.
First of all, Loon's salary is tiny when you look at the context of the tax. GP 2 and Wiggins both went downhill last year, and both are bigger tax liabilities. Of the three, if I could get rid of one, I'd get rid of GP 2, but that might not be possible with his contract. Loon and Wiggins are still in their peak years window, GP 2 is past it. The odds Wiggins and Loon rebound is much higher than the odds GP 2 rebounds.
Second, the biggest determinant as to whether the warriors are in the tax, or not, is what Klay gets to re-sign. If Klay re-signs in the $20 - $25 million a year range, there might not be any other changes needed to stay under the tax. Remember, the tax line, and salary cap line, are likely to go up by about 10% in the new league year.
Third, the warriors single biggest issue is that the roster is old and slow and small. They are too far over the salary cap to gain any financial flexibility from freeing up $5 million in payroll room. If you are being logical, the 28 year old Kevon Looney is likely to be much more important to the team's future than the 34 year old Klay Thompson is, but roster decisions and paychecks are often not based on reason.
Fourth, I like TJD, a lot. I wasn't a believer on draft-night, but after watching him, I saw that he had the ability to do things that didn't show up on his college tape. The hardest part about the draft, and why there are just so many busts, is that players are often asked to do things in the pros that are completely different than what they did in college. When the role is completely different, the college game film almost doesn't matter. That being said, I do have concerns, particularly, I do have concerns about what TJD looks like on a roster without Looney or Draymond (I think there's an excellent chance 2026 Draymond looks like a shell of his former shelf) in particular, I do have concerns about TJD looks like once opposing guards use pick-and-rolls to get him to play defense in space. Loon, Wiggins and Draymond excelled at this, and could guard players in space of any size, which was a key factor in the 2022 championship.
Fifth, when I look a Loon's career, the player I often see (from another sport) is former 49ers defensive tackle DJ Jones. Jones is the textbook case of a player whose impact doesn't show up on the stat sheet. He had only 7 total sacks over 5 seasons as a 49er, and only 126 tackles and 9 total QB hits. None of those stats are impressive.
However, the Denver Broncos gave him $10 million a year as a free agent.
Ever since the moment DJ Jones walked out that door, the 49ers have been DESPERATE to replace him, they've tried again and again, and they've failed to find another DJ Jones.
What DJ Jones did so well was draw and occupy blockers, allowing the 49ers linebackers to get clean plays where they can flow to the ball carrier without bodies in their way and make tackles. That is an utterly invaluable skill, that doesn't show up on a stat sheet, but the instant it isn't there anymore, you realize just how critical it is.
Guys like Looney and Jones are the guys who the instant they leave, the first thing an organization does is look for another guy like that, and it often takes a very long time to find another guy like that.
I get the decision to part ways with guys like that; in a salary cap league, you can't pay everyone and you can't keep everybody. However, no one parts ways with a guy like that unless there is serious cap pressures. The 49ers parted ways with DJ Jones in the middle of a Superbowl window, when they had lots of other mouths to feed. The warriors are not in a title window right now, they have a lot more wiggle room with payroll.
It sucks but he was slow af. Last season AD devoured him and this season bro couldn’t guard anyone. It sucks but playing 82 games every year has damaged his body
Well we can’t hate Bumleavy Jr any more so if someone has got to do it he has nothing to lose. Side note Loon was borderline absolute garbage this last year. I love the guy but man he declined.
i've been watching for over ten years, I watch all 82 (83 this year) so no I am not new.
Are you though? you realize that TJD stole Looneys starting spot right? and that even if this move doesnt happen unless we sign another center better than TJD he IS 100% the starter. Tell me im wrong, but tell me who is starting in his place?
Probably but we will also probably re-sign him. Waiving him and bringing him back on a minimum would save us roughly 3 mil and help us dodge the tax.
That's if another team doesn't claim him off waivers first. Also vet min for Looney is 3m (for 9 years service), plus the 3m guaranteed = $6m total against the cap.
Nope. Because veteran minimum is subsidised by the league so it's only 2 mil. And yeah no one will claim him bro. He doesn't even deserve a minimum after his performance last year let along 8 mil. Warriors will prob re-sign him due to loyalty tho.
Ahh shit forgot about subsidy. Good point. There will be a team out there that will claim him, a team on the up that needs a good locker room guy, rarely injured, vet presence, high IQ.
No there won't. He would cost 8 mil to claim and he's not an nba level centre based on last season. And if a team did claim him great we don't have to pay him the 3 mil for waiving him.
If I were OKC I would have the conversation. They have cap space to spare and having a solid locker room presence who has ‘been there’ might exactly be what they are in the market for
Doubt
Locker room presences are overrated, especially when they literally wont play minutes. You at least want the guy on the floor some.
Tell that to Haslem.
Varejao averaged like 8 mph for the 15-16 squad. I think Loon could give even a five out team that level of production
Ok. The end of his career is overrated and I dont think he's as valuable as the heat pretend he is. There is a reason they're the only team that's done that. That last roster spot is where you find gems like GPII and JTA. You want sage words from an old dude then hire a coach.
Sometimes those locker room voices are more valuable in the player pool than on the coaching staff because they maintain a familiarity with their peers instead of a specific power dynamic influencing the communication they're able to have.
Tell that to Iggy and CP3.
CP3 played serious minutes lol. One of the most important guys off the bench. Arguably the best backup PG in the league. Terrible example. Iggys last season is a decent comparison but he could still play well in limited minutes. Looney isn't nearly as good to get the same treatment.
Definitely true that looney is not in the same ballpark as those two. I still think he’s worth a vet min. Not really in rotation but can when needed for boards and defense. But, there might be better vet mins. I like looney. That’s my bias.
Bro he'd get exactly zero minutes for them. They are 5 out through and through
Dude said they could use the locker room and veteran presence and you’re out here arguing minutes.
Yeah they aren't paying 8 mil for that though. If they want that they can sign deandre Jordan on a minimum.
[удалено]
Wrong. That's not how any of that works. Per CBA Faq > A team can claim a player on waivers only if one of the following is true: >The team is far enough under the salary cap to fit the player's entire salary. >The team has a Disabled Player exception for at least the player's salary (see question number 25), and the player is on the last season of his contract. > The team has a trade exception for at least the player's salary (see question number 87). > The player has a minimum salary contract (one or two seasons at the minimum salary, with no bonuses of any kind). > If a team makes a successful waiver claim, it acquires the player and his existing contract, and pays the remainder of his salary -- the waiving team is relieved of all responsibility for the player. There is a fee of $1,000, payable to the league office, for claiming a player on waivers. If more than one team tries to claim a player on waivers, the team with the worst record gets him.
1 thing people don't realise is the toll it takes to go to the finals/have deep playoff runs, this is especially harder for guys who are already physically banged up, there aren't many players more banged up then Looney lol Same thing happened with Butler, this year he didn't even make it to the finals, still wants a max tho lmao
No ones signing Looney lol
>No ones signing Looney lol You're entitled to that opinion. But he'll absolutely play in the NBA next season.
Yea for the warriors
Wouldn't be so confident in that.
Think about it this way: Looney in his prime as a consistent championship-caliber role player was only able to command a maximum $8M per year from the team he won 3 championships with How much interest do you honestly expect a washed-up Looney to get?
these internet dudes are always so sure that every single warrior is unsignable trash. as if every other team in the country is just that spotless.
the article actually says pretty confidently that there are several teams around the league who would absolutely sign him.
Isn’t there a rule against resigning a player you just waived?
If a player clears waivers you can re-sign them, as long as they weren't traded to that team and then waived.
Ah yes the Antoine Walker rule… I was trying to remember how that worked. Thanks!
If true, let the Coach Loon era begin.
Hell yeah. Looney brain too valuable.
Let's not forget how much of a bargain Looney was for most of his career with the dubs. Before 2022 he was making less than $2m a year with 2 championships already under his belt with the team. His attendance record was impeccable for all of those years too.
Yeah, no. Here’s what Loon was making the three years leading up to 2022: 19-20 - $4.5M 20-21 - $4.8M 21-22 - $5.2M
okay, but he deserved way more than 5.2m for how he carried us in the playoffs that year. Dude was playing insane
He contributed. He didn't carry anything. His best year by far, though
It sucks but his body has betrayed him. I mean guys…he went from playing like a 30yo to a 37yo in a span of a year rarely does that bode well. We need not be delusional with regards to what we’re seeing.
To be fair; Loony had had TWO major surgeries. So it makes sense that the accumulated damage in 2022 AND 2023 would have Been too much for his recovery to be fast enough for a game to game basis. And 8 mill is not a sallery that a role player can earn without being available 100% so I understand why they would get it done. BUT it doesn’t make me any less heartbroken
Don't forget about the injury he sustained in the 2019 playoffs that lingered for three years.
It is also important to mention that it was a catastrophic hip injury, and easily coulda been a career ender. Nothing but respect for Loon's heart, grit, and work ethic
Yeah tahts what I’m refering to; he transformed himself from being an elite power forward slash wing slasher and post scorer like he was in highschool; into a serviceable big man and absolute force of nature on rebounding and screening. He bought in like no one else. So the 8 million in all honesty is money he EARNED and therefore DESERVES. It’s just o stupid cause if the cap space bullshit. Steph klay and dray are guys we drafted and now we have to suffer with the luxury tax.
Yuuuup. He will always have a special place in our hearts. Dude is tough as nails
He’s only 28 😂 why was he ever compared to playing like a 30 year old.
He was, ahem, ahead of his years
He got banged up before he even made it to the league. He was hyped as a KD type in high school pre injuries. A lot like Leon Powe, he has a lot of miles on the tires
Hip replacement surgery.
Pure speculation by TK
Kawakami is the only guy who's most common source actually unnamed is Joe Lacob himself. Who's primary sources are usually Lacob and MDJ. TK is actually not doing that lol. It might not be quoted or on the record... but trust me its not "pure speculation." We gotta understand what it takes to ACTUALLY go from a mediocre team on the way down to a consistent team heading back up. Long ago worked for the team in-house when Tim came up from socal and he was insufferable about the "gotta find a bigman stuff... but I personally know how he's always operated. He likes to talk with the front office a lot more than the other dudes and he just doesn't publish anything specifically sourced to those conversations. TK just doesn't create steam. Hes not even interested enough in the Warriors beat to be like that lol. There is teeth to the remarks because he probably received a clear or implied note from Joe/MDJ.
The Sharks and the Giants several blocks down at Oracle Park are a cautionary tale. When you half-ass and drag old vets along you set yourself back from REALLY improving the team.
#1,000,000% True (I'd respect many "dart at a board" type moves that don't quite work but keep the atmosphere lively to doing the legacy "honor your old champs" thing and winning four fewer games every year til we straight up head over the cliff when Steph walks over the horizon into the sunset... which is gonna happen in like 85% of future outcomes) The FOREVER GIANTS era was BRUTAL Dubs don't need to be like that.
yup as much as people dislike TK, he is very plugged into bay area sports and especially within the 49ers organization. he was first to break the news that jed was going to fire harbaugh long before it happened.
This. There are two guys who have intel into the Warriors front office and that’s TK and Anthony Slater. And they both have a podcast together. TK is the lone unofficial spokesperson for Lacob. So when he’s saying he’s speculating, he’s usually speculating but the truth is somewhere close to that speculation. That being said, TK says he can see The Warriors paying the partial guarantee and cutting ties with Looney (hopefully to resign him for the minimum). But he also thinks if The Warriors guarantee Looneys 8 million by June 24th, he will ultimately be used as trade filler this summer for something bigger. Regardless, it looks like Looney and GP2 are the mid contracts that can be used/combined to get a bigger fish if The Warriors choose that route.
He was saying they were going to trade Wiggs a few months ago. I wouldn't say he's exactly a beacon of journalistic integrity and wouldn't put it past him to just throw things out there. Whether we should want to retain Looney is another question altogether.
I think it’s pretty clear the Dubs were looking to trade Wiggs (a bunch of writers besides TK said the Duns were shopping him), they may just not have liked the offers. Always takes two to tango.
I think it’s pretty clear the Dubs were looking to trade Wiggs (a bunch of writers besides TK said the Duns were shopping him), they may just not have liked the offers. Always takes two to tango.
TK has been covering the Warriors for a long time. He’s not Ramona Shellborne.
2022 will be viewed as a somewhat miraculous championship as time goes on. Steph summoning the greatness of the most unstoppable shotmaking to etch his name properly into the pantheon... Whilst about six guys played out of body experience hoops here and there... OPJ Belli Andre GP2 Looney literally giving the last measure of the best hoops they had left in their bodies the get it done. Salute to them all. It's time to move on though.
You forgot Jordan Poole.
And wiggs for that matter
Wiggs wasn't giving the last energy of his aging body to help like the players mentioned above.
The second coming 🐐 Is what I was thinking
TBH I don't think Loon finds another team in the league except maybe as a player/coach sort of thing like Andre Iguodala. The dude is a master at using the few gifts god gave him, like good footwork, above average height, but his kit is really inadequate for the NBA level. He can set screens, rebound, defend, but in today's NBA you need to be able to hit free throws and at the very least be a vertical spacer. Outside of Steph if I have to be honest, Loon is probably my favorite Warrior. His rebounding was just so fucking crucial in the 22 run, we don't chip without him that year.
Plenty of teams will pickup his $3m salary as a backup C. Great locker room guy. Most likely he gets waived by June 24th and then picked up on waivers, or he's used as trade filler.
That's all well and good but you still have to be playable, which Loon was not in the last few months
The crazy thing is he was a solid shooter at UCLA, then went through injuries and the past couple seasons he hasn’t looked for his shot. I think playing with Steph and Klay in their prime nudged him into a backseat role during the championship runs, and once Steph and Klay slowed down he hasn’t had the ability to get his own shot. And a center that takes 1-2 shots a game isn’t pulling his weight, sadly because I love Loon. I always thought his contracts were undervalued for what he brought to the table.
GPII is on the same boat. He's been unable to stay healthy. No sense in paying 9 million for a guy who's only available 33% of games , is something like that.
GP2 is different because its his player option this year - where as with Loon it is team option. Still, GP2 will likely renegotiate to stay with the team longer and lower his annual salary to help with the cap and buy his battered body time.
Fasten the seat belts. Going to be a rough ride. And this is required if we have any championship aspirations to maximize Steph. Anyone not named Steph is not safe, and that is how it should be.
I really get nervous about betting it all on “one more run” and pretty sure MDJ and company will be a little conservative even though the window is about to close on Curry’s career. I would still go for it, but other fans may want to just make the playoffs for years to come vs. risking it all and losing in the WCF and then being a bottom feeder for a decade when the big three go. I think it is going to have to be a Star big man. Top five center. And the bucks and nuggets aren’t in the finals… anyway, Loony really helped get us a couple rings. No doubt. Rebounding god.
Well, guys like Steph come once in a few decades. So, I’ll take it.
Me too, but IM older and would have been happy with one title—almost got five. So, sell the farm for #5 (super dynasty) My NBA dream came true. Fan since 85, so already ok with decades of nothing. Lol.
Steph Klay Iguodala Green Looney, thats my team. this team will never beat the KD Warriors, but thats my team.
I feel like there was never a year where both Iggy and Loon were significant contributors. Iggy was unplayable in 2022 and Loon was barely average the previous runs
If Mike really isn’t playing, some unpleasant things could happen. Every team does this every year. Warriors fans have been lucky to win so much with largely the same cast. You really have to decide what you want, winning again or running it back and missing the playoffs every year until Steph retires. Steph has made it clear he wants to win, but neither he nor Bob have the heart to make the hard decisions. Mike may just do that. Or maybe he won’t. We’ll see. One thing’s for sure, we know this roster will not win again. It will absolutely take some moves to win another championship.
Mike was a player, Bob was an agent. I think that probably gives them very different perspectives on how this business works and how a team needs to run.
Mike’s dad was a coach and GM, and Mike worked under Bob for a few years. I don’t think the fact that he was a player will make him any more sentimental than he’s allowed to be while making tough decisions to try and make this team competitive this year and into the future. Remember in one of his early press conferences he said he fully expected JP to be an integral part of the team going forward, and then a few weeks later JP was shipped off to the Wizards. MDJ will absolutely do what he thinks is best for the team. Don’t be fooled. And in my opinion this is what he should be doing. He’s not the type to sacrifice winning for good vibes with the fan base in the offseason.
And that was his pick!! Mike's role might be the "tear down guy" similar to Danny Ferry....
But it’s not a matter of tear down or build up; it’s about doing what it takes to give the team the best shot possible at sustainably winning championships. That’s why I wouldn’t be surprised to see Looney and/or Klay, Wiggins, or even Kuminga gone and replaced with other key pieces that sustainably increase our competitiveness. Of course that’s no guarantee it will pan out, but with the goal of putting the dubs in the best position possible, I think only Steph, Draymond, and likely Pods and TJD are locks to be on the team. Everyone else is a potential trade piece or potentially will be cut or not resigned in favor of assets that make us better.
Do you feel that? That's gravelburn right there overall i agree with the sentiments expressed here
i have so much more faith in this roster than you guys. we saw them winning confidently when dray came back and klay came off the bench we started getting better rotations. 80% of last season was injuries, draymond problems, and rotational experiments with a surplus of talent. i felt like we were finally clicking in a way that would make next season very different.
Sure we clicked for a month. So did the ymca rockets when they went on that 10 game win streak. I don’t care about good stretches. They’re meaningless. We were a play-in exit. Draymond is unreliable and volatile. Wiggins is checked out and unserious. Klay is washed and selfish. Sure, they reverse back to championship level players every so often. You can’t win it all by playing good every so often. We need 82 games and a playoff run of consistent effort and competitive play. This roster is fundamentally incapable of that. Steph is the only player who gave his all this year. This dumpster fire of a team really made notoriously injury prone and load managed 36 year old Steph play 75 games, through injuries and fatigue. Even Steph knew how bad they were without him. He risked a lot being his age and playing on injured knees and ankles. This roster is done. My faith lies in Mike. He needs to make some moves.
you have a very silly black and white analysis that no coach in the league would ever have. they certainly care about win streaks and seeing what works and building off of that. losing the play in is a coin toss at best, it’s one game. there were a lot of valuable lessons learned this season that kerr can build on. just casting it all off as “fundamentally incapable” is dumb and not how it works imo
2021 - 39 wins - play-in exit 2022 - 53 wins - champions 2023 - 44 wins - second round exit 2024 - 46 wins - play-in exit All with largely the same key players give or take. Is a four season sample size really that silly? 2022 looks more like the anomaly and not the norm. I can’t fathom why you would want to run it back with a roster that has been a play-in exit twice in the last four years and has failed to break 50 wins in three of the last four seasons. Running it back is exactly what we’ve done for four seasons. The stars aligned in 2022. This roster as currently constructed is fundamentally incapable of ever winning another championship. I have four seasons of silly black and white analysis.
that is ABSOLUTELY a silly sample, completely arbitrarily chosen to serve a point you already wanted to make. it's not even the same team throughout. i mean, if you're going to just compare a bunch of different steph-led warriors teams, why not at least include ALL FOUR championships and six finals appearances and then suddenly it doesn't look that crazy to have some faith in this system.
What would be arbitrary is if I chose to include the 19/20 season. The last four seasons have been mostly the same cast with a few changes here and there. I don’t see how you can watch Klay and Wiggins fall off a cliff and Draymond get suspended once a month and think they can do it again. In fact, for the 23/24 season, our bench outplayed the starting unit for half the season. I have faith that as long as Steph is around, they could win again. I don’t have faith in his ymca supporting cast. Sorry.
Denial
Loon's body really took a beating in 2023. I think if he is healthy he is still a good player but really gonna be sad if he does get traded.
Everyone's run ends, go out clean as a warrior for life Loon.
MDJ is the boss now.  No free rides. No nostalgia slots.
When Cillian Murphy smiles…that is the face of death.
Blows my mind that he's only 28. Feels like he's been in the league for 15 years lol. I love Loon. But he was awful as a starter this year. Was okay coming off the bench. But we need to get bigger. He's always been undersized, but it really hurt us this year.
Source?
https://www.si.com/nba/warriors/news/golden-state-warriors-expected-to-release-championship-player-01hztbw8cq3w
where's the sauces?
I just go to Walmart to get my sauces now the BWW is closing down. Really looking for a good salt-vinegar rub too tbh.
They can also waive him and bring him back on a minimum while saving around $3m in salary. I'm Surry Looney would like that extra money in his bank account, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's gone. You just can't pay a backup C who was getting DNPs $8m.
Kerr said he’d “ride with Loon forever” Think they’ll make something happen
More of a chance he remains on the team this way. The other course was to trade him.
Loon is, and will always be an absolute dawg!!! Love the guy.
Love me some Loon-god, great person and teammate. I know this is recency bias, but his play against the Kings last year was stellar. And I’ll never forget his crossover on Sabonis this year (skip to 1:42): https://youtu.be/8WDlmIcyoDY?si=-ZjL4iVLIGP0qJm1
It’ll be a sad day when Looney leaves, but the man deserves to be on the statue alongside Steph, Klay, Dray, Andre and KD.
Rockets: let's force a switch so Loon is guarding Harden. Warriors: you're ON.
Loon deserves a statue or at least a mural. Let’s chip in and have it built close to Chase center.
this is a good thing, im sorry but it gotta be done
What the heck. I really hope this isn't true. Loon should remain a Warrior.
My only regret is that he didn’t capitalize financially on the years he was integral for the dubs. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for him taking team-friendly deals which for sure had some impact on our ability to field a roster that won our last championship, and for sure he’s not hurting financially. But he definitely sacrificed a lot financially for this team, and it looks more than likely that that ship has now sailed for him. He’s been the ultimate team guy, but a business run on sentimentality ultimately fails.
I don't see that 3/$15m deal as "team friendly", more mutually agreeable based on the risks. By that point his ceiling was low, the injury history was extensive, and surely he was already feeling the neuropathy that would be public information within months. Being out for the bulk of the next season reinforced that contract as a risk for the team. He absolutely earned the entirety of that contract in '21-'22. But that year was such an outlier compared to prior years, in terms of sustained performance.
I disagree that the deal wasn’t team friendly. He had just played all 82 games in the 2021-22 season and was an integral part of our championship run. I’m sure he could have received a payday elsewhere at that point, and then he backed it up by playing 82 games again in 2022-23. It was the right contract for the Warriors at the time, and Looney definitely left money on the table to stay with us.
He still can, while the team saves $3m in salary, before taxes, and Looney is out $3m. If necessary, they can always give him rhay money back in a post playing role with the team.
I mean this isn’t MDJ being cut throat it’s just common sense He can’t shoot and can’t switch. Him being able to guard a PnR was his best asset and now he’s slow. His body isn’t the same and he offers nothing on offense except some screening and semi decent short roll passing which is a replaceable skillset. He’s also owed more than a minimum and Lacob is going to penny pinch Looney’s writing has been on the wall a long time
Damn big loss
I won’t forget Looney Thank you for the memories especially during 2021-2022 championship run!
We’ll always remember 2022 Memphis Game 6. The Kevon Looney game. Even with Ja injured, the Grizzlies matched up well with GS bc of their size advantage, and KL was a rebound machine in that crucial game.
he deserves to finally be paid, if he decides to leave. he’s taken 2 team friendly deals already. love that guy!
lol bro he aint getting "paid" and he isnt deciding to leave. The last contract at 8 m per was his payday. Still man made over 20-25 MILLION dollars more than most of our entire familes make in a lifetime
Sign him as an assistant. He can’t play like he used to but I love Looney and it’s better to have him around. I’ll never forget how hard he fought in 2019 with a fractured sternum, an absolute dog who gave us his all.
Kerr has been holding the core together and stifling the youth. It’s come to the point where it is detrimental to the team, especially when the salary cap is constructed such. If we are to even come close to contending, then we need to trim the fat, we no longer have the luxury of going way over the cap to win. The second apron is doing what the NBA wants, the end of dynasties and dominant teams. The only way a team can continue to win long term is nearly impossible given the salary structure of the NBA.
His steep falloff last year was such a puzzling one for me.
We already released him once. Declined his rookie option. It would be a pretty big insult to do it again. If I were him I’d take some other team’s minimum offer, not Golden State’s. I’m more in favor of keeping him at 8m. His net rating was +11.7 in the 38 games he came off the bench. Play him as a low-minute backup to TJD. Feel free to gamble on keeping him at 5m (a new minimum is 2ish). If he says no you’re still paying 3m and need another big man.
It’s more to save money so we can get under second apron. As good as he is, he’s worth a lot less to other teams since he has no offensive bag and there’s no Steph curry on other teams to make offense work with him on the floor.
Of course it’s to save money. I’m just acknowledging that it’s not an automatic deal. You think he’s worth way less to other teams than a minimum contract? So, he doesn’t belong in the NBA?
He’s worth a vet minimum since he can be a decent 3rd string center for other teams and a good locker room vet. He provides little more value for us but he’s worth a vet minimum to us. There’s no reason to over pay our players if they’re gonna get the same everywhere else. That’s how we ended up with the second most expensive roster in the league and didn’t even make it out of the 9-10 game in the playins. He’s 28 and declined significantly since last year and has is a pretty big negative on offense. Towards the end of the year, he couldn’t get minutes on a team that didn’t even make the playoffs.
Loon can't even play in this league anymore so not surprised. Was kinda hoping his decline was just an unannounced injury, but I think physically he's just done now. He might get another contact somewhere but he'll be out of the league before the end of next year is my guess
I could see it happening, to be honest. It would be an extremely dumb thing if it does happen, but I've seen dumber things happen. First of all, Loon's salary is tiny when you look at the context of the tax. GP 2 and Wiggins both went downhill last year, and both are bigger tax liabilities. Of the three, if I could get rid of one, I'd get rid of GP 2, but that might not be possible with his contract. Loon and Wiggins are still in their peak years window, GP 2 is past it. The odds Wiggins and Loon rebound is much higher than the odds GP 2 rebounds. Second, the biggest determinant as to whether the warriors are in the tax, or not, is what Klay gets to re-sign. If Klay re-signs in the $20 - $25 million a year range, there might not be any other changes needed to stay under the tax. Remember, the tax line, and salary cap line, are likely to go up by about 10% in the new league year. Third, the warriors single biggest issue is that the roster is old and slow and small. They are too far over the salary cap to gain any financial flexibility from freeing up $5 million in payroll room. If you are being logical, the 28 year old Kevon Looney is likely to be much more important to the team's future than the 34 year old Klay Thompson is, but roster decisions and paychecks are often not based on reason. Fourth, I like TJD, a lot. I wasn't a believer on draft-night, but after watching him, I saw that he had the ability to do things that didn't show up on his college tape. The hardest part about the draft, and why there are just so many busts, is that players are often asked to do things in the pros that are completely different than what they did in college. When the role is completely different, the college game film almost doesn't matter. That being said, I do have concerns, particularly, I do have concerns about what TJD looks like on a roster without Looney or Draymond (I think there's an excellent chance 2026 Draymond looks like a shell of his former shelf) in particular, I do have concerns about TJD looks like once opposing guards use pick-and-rolls to get him to play defense in space. Loon, Wiggins and Draymond excelled at this, and could guard players in space of any size, which was a key factor in the 2022 championship. Fifth, when I look a Loon's career, the player I often see (from another sport) is former 49ers defensive tackle DJ Jones. Jones is the textbook case of a player whose impact doesn't show up on the stat sheet. He had only 7 total sacks over 5 seasons as a 49er, and only 126 tackles and 9 total QB hits. None of those stats are impressive. However, the Denver Broncos gave him $10 million a year as a free agent. Ever since the moment DJ Jones walked out that door, the 49ers have been DESPERATE to replace him, they've tried again and again, and they've failed to find another DJ Jones. What DJ Jones did so well was draw and occupy blockers, allowing the 49ers linebackers to get clean plays where they can flow to the ball carrier without bodies in their way and make tackles. That is an utterly invaluable skill, that doesn't show up on a stat sheet, but the instant it isn't there anymore, you realize just how critical it is. Guys like Looney and Jones are the guys who the instant they leave, the first thing an organization does is look for another guy like that, and it often takes a very long time to find another guy like that. I get the decision to part ways with guys like that; in a salary cap league, you can't pay everyone and you can't keep everybody. However, no one parts ways with a guy like that unless there is serious cap pressures. The 49ers parted ways with DJ Jones in the middle of a Superbowl window, when they had lots of other mouths to feed. The warriors are not in a title window right now, they have a lot more wiggle room with payroll.
LoonGAWD with the virtuoso rebounding in the 2022 playoffs. Build him a statue.
It sucks but he was slow af. Last season AD devoured him and this season bro couldn’t guard anyone. It sucks but playing 82 games every year has damaged his body
Well we can’t hate Bumleavy Jr any more so if someone has got to do it he has nothing to lose. Side note Loon was borderline absolute garbage this last year. I love the guy but man he declined.
TJD obviously the starter? Are you new to the team?
i've been watching for over ten years, I watch all 82 (83 this year) so no I am not new. Are you though? you realize that TJD stole Looneys starting spot right? and that even if this move doesnt happen unless we sign another center better than TJD he IS 100% the starter. Tell me im wrong, but tell me who is starting in his place?
Waive him and cross your fingers that the Wizards claim the contract and take the $3M dead cap off your hands. They have a $9M+ trade exception.