Warriors center Kevon Looney is no stranger to rumors around the NBA trade deadline -- especially those involving him.
But despite the volatile nature of business in the league, Looney and his Golden State teammates, who sit at .500 after Friday night's 130-105 loss to the Phoenix Suns, are focused solely on improving.
"That's just our job," Looney told reporters after practice Saturday about keeping a level head as the Feb. 6 deadline nears. "It's not easy always seeing your name in ideas and different things like that, but it's part of being professional. Our job is to try to block out that noise as much as possible and go out there and perform at our highest level. There's going to be a bunch of noise for everybody these [next] few days, but our job is to go out there and play and try to win games. ...
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"You can't shut it out totally. You're always going to hear about it. … Once you've been in this league for this long, you kind of know how these things go. I've been in trade rumors the last, probably my whole career around this time. So, you kind of get used to it. You ask questions, you talk to your agent about what was really what. But for the most part, you just try to carry on like you're going to be here. You're going to be in this situation. I've been here for a long time, so you kind of work like you're going to be here, so that's how I do it for me."
Looney is an established veteran on the Warriors, coveted by the franchise and fans alike, but that hasn't stopped his name from popping up in trade rumors, along with others like Andrew Wiggins and Gary Payton II. Coach Steve Kerr understands how all of the whispers and smoke can take a toll on his players.
"The one thing that I could speak on is just how hard it is to be a player in this situation, and it's all part of the deal," Kerr told reporters Saturday. "So, guys understand that. But guys are reading their names and potential trades, and they've got families and kids, and you got to think about packing up the whole family, and it's not easy.
"And so this time of year is always really, really difficult on players, especially on teams like ours that are not in a place to just say, 'All right, we'll stand pat.' I mean, [Warriors general manager] Mike [Dunleavy] has to look at everything. We're a .500 team, and we've got to get better. But this is the business, and it's the reality of it, and it's just not an easy thing to for anybody to deal with."
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Kerr said he doesn't believe any trade-deadline stress has seeped into the Warriors' play. But their inconsistencies on the court this season have cost them, and Golden State's upset win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday followed by its rough loss to the Suns was indicative of those up-and-down struggles.
While the Warriors have been tied to possible trades for players such as Zach LaVine, Jimmy Butler and Nikola Vučević in recent weeks, the players currently on the team can't sit around and wait for another player to arrive. Looney knows the work doesn't stop no matter what's being passed through the rumor mill.
"We're just trying to build on our habits, continue to try to build on the good things that we've been doing, and learn from our mistakes," Looney said. "We seem to win one, win two, then lose one, lose two. So, we've just got to learn how to be more consistent, learning how to compete and produce and execute the details at a high level every game."
At 24-24 and in the Western Conference's No. 11 seed, the Warriors certainly can't stay dormant at the deadline. But what -- or who -- that might cost remains to be seen.