Kevon Looney (PF/C, GS) - Week 9 Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add In 14-Team Leagues

OWNED IN: 8% of leagues

ANALYSIS: Through the first 124 games of his NBA career, Kevon Looney had occupied a very limited roll (understandably so) for the star-studded Golden State Warriors, and last year he was called on for just 13.8 minutes per game. With DeMarcus Cousins having been out from the start of the season and targeting a post-Christmas return, Looney has seen considerably more floor-time and has responded with an uptick in efficiency. He is currently being deployed for 19.9 minutes per game and in that time he is averaging 6.2 points (career-high), 5.3 rebounds (career-high), 1.9 assists (career-high), and 0.8 blocks (tied for career-high). Looney's effective field goal percentage of 62.5% as well as his true shooting percentage of 63.9% are both the highest marks of his career excluding his rookie season (which lasted all of five games). Not only that, his two-point field goal percentage of 64.2% is the best figure of his young career by 4.2%, and even his free-throw percentage is at it's highest level yet of 63.6%.he

Steve Kerr has gone to Looney more frequently over the last three outings for the Warriors (between 25:00-28:48 minutes), and he has been a solid contributor across the court. In those three games he averaged 10.0 points, 1.0 block, 5.7 rebounds, and an impressive 4.0 assists per appearance while also grabbing two steals across that time-span. Scoring easy buckets and being able to focus on defense and feeding your teammates gets a little bit easier when you are the big man sharing the floor with the likes of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson. Though the return of "Boogie" Cousins is looming, it isn't yet set in stone when exactly he's coming back; and even with a little less than a month before that projected date, Kevon Looney has a lot to offer fantasy basketball managers in deeper leagues across the board in the meantime.