Kevon Looney on being surprised by Chris Paul, his favorite screen he's ever set, and more on Light Years

Vibes are positive after one game

Kevon Looney was interviewed on Monday by friends of DNHQ, Sam Esfandiari and Andy Liu. I transcribed a couple of interesting moments below, but there is a lot more in the interview, including: guarding James Harden and what other players he can guard better than expected, hardest players to guard, social media for players, his Windex rebounding award and more.

Chris Paul surprised him in Preseason Game 1

What was it like playing with Chris Paul?

It was fun, you know his IQ he fits right in he pushes the ball. He's one of the best passers in NBA history. So he makes my job a lot easier. Learning how to play pick and roll with him was a little bit different, so it's gonna be a learning curve. Just to get used to get the passes that he throws out. Sometimes I get caught off guard because he sees an opening that you might not see.

It's been a lot of fun having him in the locker room. He's gonna talk a lot with film sessions and he's another guy that's gonna have a lot of edge on the court. So it's gonna be fun having him out there, it's gonna be fun to see him and Draymond together, you know, talking trash to different people, so I'm excited for it.

Is he gonna turn you into a lob threat too? 'Cause we saw one of them.

I mean, I was talking about the first one caught me off guard. I was surprised! I didn’t think he was gonna — I was ready for a put back, not a lob. So I gotta change my mindset a little bit.

Eric Apricot says: the surprise lob play he’s talking about is at 0:39 in this video:

Favorite screen ever

What was the absolute favorite screen you've set? What was the situation and what was the outcome?

Favorite screen, man. I would have to say, last year in the playoffs, versus the Kings, Malik Monk was trying to run me over a lot of the series, like trying to run through my screens, like I was a little guy or something. And that one, I think I got caught for a moving screen, but I took him out. I hit him hard, he fell on the ground, I think he was grabbing his ribs, and that was probably my favorite one of last year, just because he was trying to run through me and I put him down. And even if it was a moving screen, I don't care, I got to get my lick back on him, So that was probably my favorite one.

Eric Apricot says: I couldn’t figure out which play this was. If you can figure out the game and time, let me know in the comments.

Update: I found the play! (4/23/23 4Q 02:14) https://thehighlow.io/video/ids?ids=23SZtD