The Warriors have made a clean sweep of California’s basketball teams to start the season. Golden State is 3-0 after running through the Los Angeles Lakers, Clippers and Sacramento Kings and have another favorable road matchup Tuesday night against the winless Oklahoma City Thunder.
Ahead of the matchup in OKC, Warriors forward Kevon Looney told 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” Tuesday that the team’s depth has been key to its early success. Listen to the full interview here:
“It’s been pretty exciting,” Looney told Bonta Hill and Joe Shasky. “In years past, that’s always been our motto: ‘Strength in Numbers.’ I think this year, as soon as training camp started we saw that we had a lot of great talent, a lot of great guys who could score the ball and make plays. I think we’re feeling really good about our bench, our team. We all trust each other can all make plays.”
It’s a small sample size, but Looney is averaging 7.0 points per game this season, which is better than his career-best mark of 6.3 ppg in 2018-19, when he played 80 contests with the Warriors and made 24 starts. Looney is shooting 61.5 percent from the field with 4.3 shot attempts per game, which matches his career-high from 2018-19.
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Looney said he’s enjoyed working with the new coaching staff, singling out big-man specialist Dejan Milojevic for aiding with his offensive moves.
“That’s something we talked about in summertime, before the offseason, they wanted me to work on my offense to grow that part of my game,” Looney said. “I came in this year trying to be more aggressive, especially around the rim. I take open shots when I have the opportunity. Everybody has to be a threat, so that’s what I’ve been working on.”
Looney isn’t an explosive athlete but holds his own on defense, something key for these undersized Warriors. If he can keep the opposition honest with his offensive skills, that’d be a huge bonus for Golden State on the low block.
