Kevon Looney is a locker room leader and a Steve Kerr favorite. But with the team at .500, a rookie center getting playing time and ownership eager to duck the repeater tax, he could be gone.
Steve Kerr loves Kevon Looney. He’s a leader in the Golden State Warriors’ locker room, and his defense and rebounding were a huge part of why the team won their fourth title of the Steph Curry Era in 2022. But he also makes $8 million, the Warriors are $5.7 million over the luxury tax line, and ownership would love to dodge paying the luxury tax for an 11th-place team.
Sam Vecenie of The Athletic listed a Looney deal as one of the trades he’d like to see this week. The proposed deal would send Looney to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have a fantastic starting frontcourt with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, but a limited group of backups led by Tristan Thompson. The Warriors would send a second-round pick to the Washington Wizards, who would take Cleveland’s Isaac Okoro and his long-term deal while sending little-used Anthony Gill to Golden State.
What would the Warriors’ motivation be? Primarily, getting out of the luxury tax. The trade would save them about $20 million in salary and tax payments, but the biggest benefit would be that they’d get out of the repeater tax. They’ve been over the tax for the last four seasons, only dipping under the tax line during their 15-50 season of 2019-20, after being over from 2017-19. Oddly, in the first Galacticos season with Kevin Durant, the Warriors didn’t pay the luxury tax thanks to Curry’s dirt-cheap second contract.
In theory, the Warriors would need Looney less after Draymond Green’s expected return next week. Now that Quinten Post is in the rotation, alongside Rising Star Trayce Jackson-Davis, there’s going to be fewer center minutes available. Plus, Looney is going to be a free agent this summer, and the team could always bring him back in July — he might welcome the chance at a deep playoff run or even a fifth trip to the NBA Finals this season.
As for Gill, he’s there to make the money in the deal works, which is only possible due to Washington’s soon-to-expire trade exception for sending Daniel Gafford to the Mavericks next season. This assumes that there’s not a better reward than Okoro and some mediocre draft picks available, but on paper it feels fair. There’s other options for the Warriors to get rid of salary and under the tax line, but subtracting Looney might be the cleanest and cheapest.
Dealing Looney may be cold and callous, but that’s why they call it call it sports business, and not sports friends. The chance to stop paying nearly five dollars in tax for every dollar of salary over the tax line might prove too tempting if the price is only 10 weeks of Looney’s services.