The humble rebound. The Mach-Hommy to basketball’s Griselda: underrated, ever-present, and thoroughly engrossing. Despite being one of the more critical parts of the game, rebounds are too often treated as a “thing that happens” instead of a “thing you MAKE happen.” Boards are also highly associated with size and athleticism, particularly jumping skills.
So how did a 6’9″ undersized center with two surgically repaired hips become one of the most impactful rebounders in basketball?
Enter the Loon God.
Positioning
“Thus the expert in battle moves the enemy, and is not moved by him.” -Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“Not moved by him” can certainly describe Looney’s positioning on the boards; the same cannot be said for the man he is trying to box out.
Let’s move from the most basic positioning until we get into the real diabolical stuff. For starters, if you are on the edge of the paint, expect Loon to throw an arm across your chest just in case:
It may seem like nothing, but it’s a simple deterrent: if you try to crash the glass, I WILL get physical with you. In other words:
However, if Looney is the one going for the offensive rebound, you’ll need more than just a light hand to deter him. In the clip below, James Harden tries that same method before realizing he’s getting a lot more to handle than he bargained for.
Notice how hard he tries (and how low he gets) just to maintain that inside positioning. That left arm stays in Harden’s chest until the ball comes off the rim, and he tips up with ease.
His commitment to staying on the inside at both ends of the floor is incredible. It requires attention to detail and effort (both of which will be explored more in-depth later), two things he has in spades. I love this possession where he boxes out Walker Kessler. After the arm strategy fails, he uses his hips to push Kessler back to the outside and secure the paint.
Not only is Looney very good at the simple boxout and positioning moves, but he also has an advanced understanding of angles and how to manipulate them. In the below play, Loon reads the layup and decides to wall off the strong side of the rim from Jakob Poeltl. He’s playing the numbers, assuming that a miss will come off the front or at the strong side, and the gamble pays off.
Not only is he smart about putting himself in a good 1v1 boxout position, but he also knows how to seal for others. Notice below where the majority of his teammates are and how it affects where he pushes Mitchell Robinson.
Just for safekeeping, he tips it out into the yellow and gold sea of jerseys to ensure Robinson cannot wrestle it away.
Kevon is also sound at knowing when to push his man under the rim. The concept is very simple: a missed shot is not going to wind up underneath the rim, so put your man there if they manage to win inside positioning. He’s quite prolific at blowing people off their spots to do so.
Again, he’s controlling angles and playing the numbers. He’s not deterred if denied inside positioning. It can always be used to his advantage.
Plus, if you’re a guard, he’s just going to shove you into the dirt like a middle school bully who hit an early growth spurt:
Brunson does an admirable job of trying to get low with inside positioning. Kevon is not going to be moved that easily.
With how good Looney is at establishing inside position, players are going to throw all manners of counters at him to get back to that position. Watch where he tries to direct Bruno Fernando after a well-executed swim move:
Hip-on-hip contact, working for the lower position, and tangling arms: he checks all the boxes necessary to be a deterrent. It takes Fernando out of the play just long enough to secure a victory on the glass.
A last important factor in positioning: not compromising it once achieved. Loon knows how to avoid losing his rebound positioning for unlikely blocks, but can still contest shots. Pump fakes rarely throw him off his game to boot.
Positioning is a significant factor on the glass. Positioning without technique, however, is almost worthless. Let’s look closer at how Kevon has mastered the technical aspects of the board wars.
Technique
“Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy’s will to be imposed on him.” -Sun Tzu, The Art of War
There may be only one person in the world with better hip usage than Kevon Looney. And unlike Shakira, Kevon Looney (probably) pays his taxes.
Technique in rebounding, outside of being in the right spot, comes down to leverage and making your opponent uncomfortable. In other words, Sun Tzu’s words to be exact, impose your will on the enemy. And boy does Kevon know how to impose his will using his hips.
Look at how much lower his hips are than his counterpart in each clip. These aren’t slouch rebounders either; all three of DeAndre Ayton, Jakob Poeltl, and Domantas Sabonis placed in the top 20 in total boards per game with Sabonis pacing the league in glasswork. Yet all three were physically outclassed by a smaller player. The low man always wins.
Though the below clip falls more under the category of a shot contest, it still points to his mastery of hip usage to throw opposing centers off. He practically contests this Alperen Sengün attempt with his hips as much as his hands. It serves the dual purpose of also setting him up to collect the board.
This hip leverage is only half the battle, however, and the above clip forms a good segue. Hips and hands must move in concert. It’s the flamenco of basketball.
Notice how he is constantly changing hands when the player moves from one side of his back to another. As we discussed earlier, he gets that first hand out early as an initial deterrent but continues to use them once the player has committed to fighting for the board. Sengün gets upset in the second clip for how high his arm gets, and understandably so. This is another consistent theme in Kevon’s rebounding tape: force the refs to make a call, and walk that line of a loose-ball foul. Ultimately, you will trade 1-2 loose ball fouls per game for rebounding dominance.
A last technical aspect of Kevon’s rebounding that I greatly appreciate is his swim move. When being boxed out on the offensive glass, especially when by a smaller player, a well-timed swim move is the easiest way to put yourself back in a strong position. But it’s far more difficult than it looks.
The release needs to be strong enough to shed the other player, but not so strong that it looks like you “pulled the chair”. You have to use your hands to make it work; outright throwing the player aside will get you called for a foul. And you must time it right. Swimming too early gives them time to reposition, and swimming too late could mean the ball is already in someone else’s hands.
I’m a sucker for seeing technical mastery on display in basketball. If you watch Kevon Looney on the boards, that’s all you will see. He’s not crashing the boards; that implies a kind of reckless violence to the act. He seduces the boards.
Effort
“If you fight with all your might, there is a chance of life; whereas death is certain if you cling to your corner” -Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Kevon Looney certainly does not cling to his corner. He will put himself out there, making several efforts while not conceding an inch if it can be helped. His work to not get put off of his spots is the standard for rebounders as far as I’m concerned:
I salute the smaller players like PJ Tucker and Saddiq Bey trying to force Kevon off his spot. You can put two hands between the numbers and extend, yet he maintains his balance somehow. Throw your whole body into his chest, he will contort over the top and snag the rebound right in front of your face.
Entrenched in his spots, this brings the multiple efforts into the picture. You’re not going to get away with beating him on the first effort and expecting the rebound to fall in your lap. He’s going to grab, poke, swipe at, and tip away the ball endlessly until he or a teammate has secured it.
Even if out of the play initially, he will throw himself wildly back into it just for the chance at tipping a board away:
Another important factor in his effort is knowing how to make sure a good end result is produced. He sticks with the ball, having a great sense of when he has a window to tip it up himself:
Of course, I’d be remiss if I mentioned his tip drill putbacks without showing his statue-building game-winner against the Hawks in January:
Not only does Looney know when he has a chance to get the putback himself; he can rule out the possibility in an instant, and look to find teammates on the perimeter or cutting toward the basket.
This would be a valuable trait in any offensive system. It carries extra weight on a Warriors team full of prolific cutters and even better shooters. That extra split second he doesn’t need to take in turning and finding a pass can mean an open layup or uncontested three by Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson. All of that is borne out of Kevon’s excellent sense of effort mixed with timing, our last skill factor to discuss.
Timing
“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” -Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Though not quite like a thunderbolt, Kevon’s planning is often impenetrable to prediction by his opponents. His innate sense of timing and internal clock would make George Michael Bluth jealous.
Watch the below clip and pause when he starts to load up his jump. Notice how quickly Anthony Davis can get back up for a second jump off the ground; Looney does not have that luxury (double labrum repairs, remember?). He has to jump at the exact right moment to make this tip work, and does just that:
It’s pretty crazy how often he collects his rebound at the absolute highest point he can reach. Knowing how long it takes you to reach that point and when to make the jump cannot be taught. That’s just an incredible level of learned skill over the years of dominance on the glass.
His timing also extends to knowing when to crash. Looney is much like a wizard: he arrives neither early nor late, but precisely when he means to. It jumps off the screen when watching his tape:
That impeccable sense also shows up when going for his own misses. Loon knows just where his own shots are going, and picks the quickest path to intercept them and get it back up before anyone else notices.
The Whole Rebounding Package
The timing brings together a complete package of rebounding skills. You’ve probably noticed by now that a lot of these clips could easily slide into other categories. Rarely does he have an effort play that doesn’t involve positioning, or technique that doesn’t involve timing; really, any combination of the four.
This brings me to the main point. Too often I see rebounders who employ some of these skills, but leave out the microskills that lead to truly dominant rebounding. Being tall or a hard worker is great, but these skills have to work in conjunction to find true productivity.
Another thing I have come to appreciate about Looney circles back to his high school days. He went from Milwaukee’s Kevin Durant to a yeoman-like worker on the glass. Few NBA players can maintain a spot in the league after suffering such a devastating alteration to their physical attributes. Even fewer can thrive, especially at such physically demanding parts of the game
Kevon Looney has mastered this Art of Board, and we get to watch him ply his trade for 82 games per season. What an incredible gift.
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