Kurtenbach: Kevon Looney has emerged as an invaluable asset in the Warriors’ playoff run

SAN ANTONIO — Kevon Looney is not having a breakout series.

Yes, the Warriors third-year big man has been a critical part of Golden State jumping out to a 3-0 lead over the San Antonio Spurs, playing more than 20 minutes a night in those three wins and taking on a big role as a LaMarcus Aldridge stopper on defense.

But it’s not a breakout.

If you had been paying attention, you would know that Looney has been turning in performances like the ones he’s provided the Warriors in this first-round series against the Spurs all season. He was particularly good at the end of the regular season, when the Warriors were ravaged by injuries.

Though to be fair, for most of the season, Looney’s big games were spaced out — coming against certain types of teams. Fifteen times this year, Looney was either inactive or left on the bench for the entire game. In 10 other games, he played less than five minutes — most of it garbage time.

Looney is no longer a situational player for the Warriors, though — he’s been invaluable to Golden State so far this postseason.

And don’t expect that to change anytime soon.

Looney playing the best basketball of his professional at the perfect time, and looking ahead to the Warriors’ next two playoff opponents — New Orleans and perhaps (probably?) Houston — it’s likely that Kerr is going to continue to call on the 22-year-old to play major minutes over the next two rounds (should the Warriors and the aforementioned teams advance).

When the Warriors drafted Looney with the 30th pick in the 2015 draft, the player we’ve seen against the Spurs was the prospect Golden State thought it landed. It took three years to arrive at this moment — he entered the league with hip injuries that limited both his playing time and, in turn, his development, in his first two seasons — but now the Warriors have a defensive-minded, supremely-long big man who can guard five different positions with confidence both in the post and on the perimeter.

Most teams don’t have one guy who can do that, but with Looney’s emergence, the Warriors have two in him and Draymond Green. (With Jordan Bell threatening to become a third.)

It was a bit surprising that Looney was called upon early in this Spurs series — Looney didn’t spend much time matching up against old-school big men like LaMarcus Aldridge this season. Warriors coaches hinted before the series started that we could see the more traditional big men — Zaza Pachulia and David West — play in the first round.

Instead, the Warriors have tried to overwhelm the Spurs with athleticism. JaVale McGee — the Warriors’ rim-running energy center — has started all three games, and the Warriors’ best defensive lineup has been when Looney has subbed in to play with the starters.

That five-man unit of Looney, Green, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Andre Iguodala has played 20 minutes in this first-round series against San Antonio — in Thursday’s Game 3, they closed out the first half — and have posted an absurd net rating of 53.4 in that time.

Defensively, it’s hard to imagine performing better than the 0.73 points per possession that super-long, super-switching lineup has allowed to the Spurs this series, but the offensive output — 1.26 points per possession — is excellent as well. That’s not a small sample size, either. This is unequival domination.

The lineup is working against the Spurs because San Antonio can’t run with the Warriors and they don’t have the playmakers to exploit defensive mismatches (if any develop), but against the Pelicans in the next round (New Orleans is also up 3-0 in their first-round series) certainly can do both.

Since DeMarcus Cousins tore his Achilles tendon in January, the Pelicans — led by former Warriors’ “offensive coordinator” Alvin Gentry — have played at the fastest pace in the NBA (104.45 possessions per game), with Anthony Davis, the league’s preeminent “unicorn” (the term used around the league these days to describe centers who can play in the spot while also showing off the ball handling and outside shot of a guard), leading the way.

To most teams, the current Pelicans attack — which also features Jrue Holiday and 3-point shooting big Nikola Mirotić — is a near-impossible challenge. They can play five-out on one possession and then come down the floor and post up two bigs on the next — they play at a breakneck speed that is sure to create defensive cross-matches that would leave other teams floundering before the ball crossed half court.

The Warriors’ ability to switch everything on defense mitigates some of those New Orleans advantages, but Golden State is going to have to throw four or five different kinds of smoke at Davis — you have to mix up defenders and coverages against a player that impossibly talented — and Looney’s recent play gives the Warriors confidence that he can be trusted on to take on a large share of that work, alongside Green and Kevin Durant.

And should the Warriors advance to play the Rockets in the Western Conference Finals, Looney will be called on again — as he has been against the Rockets all season, as his ability to defend on the perimeter but protect the rim at the same time has proven to be a strong foil to James Harden and Chirs Paul’s pick-and-roll attack.

It’s fair to say that no one saw Looney making this kind of an impact during the Warriors’ playoff run.

Heading into the season, the Warriors, opted to decline Looney’s player option for next year — not because they didn’t believe in his potential, but as a cost-saving measure (the Warriors have the highest payroll in the NBA).

But it looks like the Warriors are going to lean on Looney for the rest of the playoffs, and when they’re done, it could result in a well-deserved payday for the UCLA product this summer.

After all, who wouldn’t want a defender like Looney on their team?

“You look at what Loon went through this year, not getting his option picked up, he could have sulked, pouted, and threw a pity party, but he did the complete opposite — that’s what got him on the court this year,” Green said after the Warriors’ Game 3 win. “This series he’s taken it to another level… and we needed it. I’m very proud of him and what he’s been able to accomplish… Just watching him grow on [defense] is special.”

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