On His Return, a Look at Jonathan Kuminga's Fit With New-Look Warriors
After missing 31 straight games due to a lingering ankle injury, Jonathan Kuminga is set to make his post-trade deadline debut tonight against the Sacramento Kings. Kuminga, who was starting to look comfortable with consistently eye-catching numbers in December prior to being sidelined, is poised to hit the court alongside a team that couldn’t look more different from his last time in action.
When JoKu went down in early January, the Warriors were only a pair of games over .500, struggling to stay afloat by way of bricking close games and relying almost solely on the heroics of Steph Curry to get them across the finish line nightly. The addition of Jimmy Butler has not only alleviated a lot of those struggles by giving the team another legitimately-explosive scoring threat who touts both connective playmaking and high IQ hoops on both ends, but it’s also helped to elevate just about every player on the roster in their own unique ways.
The Dubs are now 9-1 in their last 10 games, and while Butler’s numbers aren’t the flashiest every outing, his impact can be felt a great deal beyond the box score. This has manifested the most obviously with Moses Moody, whose amped-up defensive energy has been in large part because his role was made simpler by the deadline addition of number 10.
Moody was already having a good season, posting career highs in points, assists, blocks, steals, and three-point shooting percentage, and has now complimented those with gritty on-ball pressure on both guards and wings since Butler joined the lineup, compensating for the risks that come with being aggressive at the point of attack by acting as a sweeper. Other Warriors players who had rough starts to the season, such as Brandin Podziemski and Gui Santos, have been given some room to play more free, something they’ve benefitted of to become important contributors to the recent winning streak when they’re available to play.
Kuminga figures to be a similar case, though possibly with much more profound impact. The 4th year forward’s raw scoring talent is made even more accessible to him with another creator on the floor, drawing the defense’s mandatory attention which opens up his ability to punish mismatches via athleticism and strength. While Butler isn’t a consistent threat from beyond the arc, he does know how to get guys the ball in the right places, and with the emergence of rookie Quinten Post providing the team with a stretch big the caliber of which they’ve never had before, the lanes will be there for Kuminga to take advantage of via dive cuts, screen-and-rolls, baseline lobs, and everything else which has made his scoring arsenal around the rim so versatile at his age. He’ll certainly be the biggest beneficiary of the connectivity currently defining the Warriors offense, a play finisher through and through.
Defensively, the 22-year-old’s shown a lot of flashes as a tough on-ball hawk already in his career. He’s bothered talented scorers across the league with physicality and quickness that few others possess, while his main deficiencies on that end come from lackluster off-ball awareness and ability to cause interference in passing lanes or from help-side. With Jimmy Butler in the lineup, Jonathan’s role shifts and lessens the off-ball expectations which he’ll have from the jump, allowing him to spend more time on his strengths while learning from the experience of Butler’s extensive defensive knowledge in a very similar positional role for when he does need to be off-ball. This isn’t to say the impact will be instant, but his point-of-attack defense will symbiotically help to ease the burdens of both Butler and Draymond Green, allowing them both to roam and wreck havoc across an opponent’s offensive scheme while keeping Kuminga in a role he’s been historically more successful in, similar to Moody.
The caveat to these improvements lies with the depth chart and where his minutes will come from. The most likely candidate to log less time on the floor is Gui Santos, who fills a similar positional spot to Kuminga. While Santos’s numbers don’t jump off the box scores, anyone watching this team since the deadline can tell he’s been putting his heart into the game every single night, and should his minutes diminish it will be on Kuminga to try and replicate the level of hustle and intensity his teammate brought with him to every possession. Other candidates likely include contract year guys Kevon Looney and Gary Payton II; Kuminga returning to play more at the 3 or 4 spot has the ability to push Draymond into the 5, meaning Loon will likely play less by circumstance, and GP2 is commonly used as a “little big man” given his unique skillset.
There’s also the matter of JoKu drawing starts, which potentially impacts Moody (currently boasting the highest win percentage of any starter in the NBA) and possibly Quinten Post (for similar reasons to Looney). His contributions to winning are known, but Steve Kerr may opt to give Kuminga some to re-acclimate with the bench mob while determining which lineup combinations, now including the forward, will maximize every guy playing regular minutes. There’s plenty of season left, meaning Draymond playing against bruising centers has the potential to take greater effect if he’s playing center a lot.
Despite the “if” aplenty here, there’s a ton to like about the reintegration of Jonathan Kuminga into the lineup, ranging from the operational ease he’ll have offensively as a third option to the definition of a defensive role that maximizes his strengths while being of benefit to the whole team. It’s honestly hard to imagine how Kuminga would not fit into this roster even if his three-ball can be streaky: His many dimensions as a player make him plug-and-play with the depth the Warriors roster currently has, letting him fit practically anywhere while getting to learn as the understudy to a guy that his game is suited to be like.
(Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)